Ultrasonic welding of thermoset matrix composites reinforced with glass fibers using a co-cured retaining layer

In this paper, ultrasonic welding of glass fiber reinforced thermoses, co-cured whit a thermoplastic has been studied. Co-curing process forms a connection between the thermoset and the thermoplastic while curing the composite. Considering that the calculated stress should not be related to the dimensions of the sample, a horn with a tip dimension smaller than the standard overlap was used. The results show that the actual weld dimensions are bigger than the intended weld dimensions. This has happened due to the movement of the melted thermoplastic to the sideways during the welding. The design of experiment has been done using response surface central composite, and a quadratic equation based on the lap shear strength of the welds containing three principle parameters time, force and amplitude was suggested, as well as predicting the optimum values. The equation shows that the force is an insignificant factor. In the samples with a higher time value the thermosetting resin started to degrade. The dominant failure mode of the specimens is segregation between the thermoset and fibers. The results show that the optimum parameters can result in a lap shear strength of 28.2 MPa, which is a very decent value compared to other methods of joining.