COMPARISON OF PROPERTIES OF JOINTS PREPARED BY ULTRASONIC WELDING AND OTHER MEANS

This is the third in a series of papers on the work being done at the Fairchild Republic Company to develop and evaluate ultrasonic welding as a means for aluminum sheet metal assembly. A large-joint testing program is described that compares the static and fatigue properties of joints prepared by mechanical fastening, adhesive bonding, resistance spotwelding, resistance weldbonding, ultrasonic welding, and ultrasonic weld-bonding. Overlap joints 12 in. wide are used for static, monotonic fatigue, and random spectrum fatigue tests. In addition, relative weight and cost factors have been assessed and incorporated into an overall trade study of the various joining methods.