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Composites: Part B 39 (2008) 396–404

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Fatigue properties of vibration-welded nylon 6 and nylon 66

reinforced with glass fibres
K.Y. Tsang a, D.L. DuQuesnay a,*
, P.J. Bates b

a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, Ont., Canada K7K 7B4
b
Department of Chemical Engineering, Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, Ont., Canada K7K 7B4

Received 7 March 2006; accepted 14 January 2007

Available online 22 February 2007

Abstract

The fatigue properties of vibration-welded butt joints of nylon 6 and 66 with 30 wt% glass fibres made under low and high weld pres-
sures were examined. Fatigue testing was conducted at a stress ratio of R = 0.1 in load control at frequencies ranging from 3 to 10 Hz.
Specimens tested at both high and low stress levels failed at the weld with no thermal damage. It was found that although weld pressure
affected the fatigue strength, the welded specimens all had similar fatigue behaviour. The reinforced nylon 6 welded in low pressure had
slightly longer fatigue life than the others.
Crown Copyright  2007 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: A. Polymer-matrix composites (PMCs); B. Fatigue; C. Damage mechanics; D. Mechanical testing

1. Introduction Vibration welding involves bringing two parts together

Engineering plastics and composites are easy to fabri-
cate, low cost, recyclable and exhibit good chemical resis-
tance and low densities compared to metals. The demand
for lower density material is high in the aerospace and
automotive industries. In the automotive industry, they
have replaced metals in parts such as air intake manifolds,
air filter housings, resonators, timing gears, radiator fans
and radiator tanks.
Similar to metal component fabrication, complex plastic
components often consist of assemblies of smaller parts.
There are three major methods to join thermoplastics
parts: mechanical fastening, chemical bonding (adhesives)
and physical bonding. The method employed depends on
production rate, service performance, type of material, part
size, geometry, cost and aesthetics [1]. Vibration welding
belongs to the physical bonding category, and is a widely
used process for joining thermoplastic parts.
* erally focused on the short-term mechanical properties of
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 613 541 6000x6483; fax: +1 613 542
8612.
E-mail address: duquesnay-d@rmc.ca (D.L. DuQuesnay).
under pressure with one part vibrating at a pre-set ampli-
tude and frequency. Vibration dissipates frictional and vis-
cous energy, which causes melting to occur at the contact
surface. As molten polymer is produced, it flows out of
the weld interface under the applied weld pressure and flash
is created. The applied pressure causes the two parts to
merge and is referred to as meltdown. At a target melt-
down, the vibration stops, and the interface cools and then
solidifies [2]. Research has found that the strength of vibra-
tion-welded joints can depend on amplitude, meltdown,
and weld pressure [1–6]. MacDonald [6] studied the effects
of amplitude, meltdown and weld pressure on the tensile
strength of unreinforced and glass fibre reinforced nylon
6 and 66 at a weld frequency of 212 Hz. It was found that
the most influential factor on weld strength was the weld
pressure. In addition, the tensile strength of nylon welded
at a relatively low pressure (e.g. 0.8 MPa) was higher than
that obtained at a relatively high pressure (e.g., 4.0 MPa).
Much research on vibration welding e.g., [1–6] has gen-
thermoplastic materials. Glass reinforced nylon is being
used increasingly in structural applications such as railways

1359-8368/$ - see front matter Crown Copyright  2007 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.compositesb.2007.01.012
 K.Y. Tsang et al. / Composites: Part B 39 (2008) 396–404 397

[7], and automotive under hood and exterior components.
Hence, further study of the fatigue properties of welded
thermoplastics is necessary particularly since they are used
increasingly in applications, where they bear considerable
weight and cyclic loads.
Stokes [8] has studied the fatigue life of vibration-welded
unreinforced polycarbonate (PC), polyetherimide (PEI),
modified polyphenylene oxide resin (M-PPO) and
poly(butylenes terephthalate) (PBT), under tension–tension
loading at R = 0.1. The first three polymers are amorphous
and PBT is semi-crystalline. Stokes found that the ratio of
endurance limit stress to the tensile strength was 0.29 for
PC, 0.34 for PEI, 0.22 for M-PPO and 0.31 for PBT.
Recently, the authors [9] studied the fatigue behaviour of
unreinforced semi-crystalline nylon 6 and nylon 66 vibra-
tion-welded under high and low pressure conditions. It
was observed that the ratio of endurance limit stress to
the tensile strength was approximately 0.3 for fatigue
cycling at R = 0.1. In a study by the authors [10], and a
study by Wyzgoski et al. [11] on the fatigue properties of
unwelded short glass fibre-reinforced nylon 66, the ratio
of endurance limit stress to the tensile strength was approx-
imately 0.5 for fatigue cycling at R = 0.1. Jia and Kagan
[12] have reported on the effects of testing temperature on
the fatigue S–N behaviour of unwelded glass-reinforced
nylon 6 and nylon 66. They showed that at room tempera-
ture (23 C) nylon 66 had slightly better fatigue strength
than nylon 6, but the trend was reversed at lower and
higher temperatures.
Reinforced plastics generally provide higher strength
and stiffness than their unreinforced counterparts. Glass
reinforced plastics are economical to produce and the addi-
tion of glass fibres in moderate quantities does not greatly
increase the density of the material. This study examines
the fatigue properties of vibration-welded nylon 6 and
nylon 66 reinforced with 30 wt% short glass fibres (nylon
6 GF and nylon 66 GF), under tension–tension loading
at R = 0.1. Non-welded material data are also included
for reference. The results are analyzed using stress-number
of cycles to failure (S–N) curves, and the fatigue mecha-
nisms and the specimen temperature profiles during testing
are examined.
tation in thin edge-gated plaques is parallel to the melt flow
direction during cavity filling as shown in Fig. 1 [13]. A
schematic is used to illustrate the flow direction as the
fibres are physically short and only show up clearly in pho-
tographs at high magnification. The details of the fibre ori-
entation can be seen is some detail in the fractographs
presented later.
The moulded plaques were cut into 60 mm · 100 mm ·
3.2 mm plates parallel to the flow direction (Fig. 2). The
preferred fibre orientation is therefore along the length of
the plate; typical of what is often encountered in industrial
components. The cut edges were then milled to create a flat
welding surface, thereby increasing alignment accuracy in
the thickness dimension during welding. Two plates with
the milled edges in contact were then clamped in a fixture
mounted on a Branson Mini II Linear Vibration Welder
(details of the fixture can be found in [6]). The top plate
was then oscillated with respect to the stationary bottom
plate by a spring-mass system at a 212 Hz frequency with
a peak-to-peak amplitude of 1.8 mm. When the meltdown
reached 1.5 mm, the vibration stopped and the weld solid-
ified under constant pressure. Throughout the welding pro-
cess, a constant clamping pressure (within ±10% of the
target value) was applied to the plates by a pneumatic cyl-
inder and air pressure regulator. An electronic pressure
transducer linked to a data acquisition system monitored
the pressure. Similar to prior work on the static tensile
properties of vibration-welded nylon by MacDonald [6]
and Mah [15], weld pressures of 0.8 (low) and 4.0 MPa
(high) were chosen for this study.

2. Experimental procedures
Fig. 1. Flow direction and predominant glass fibre orientation for plaque.
Nylon 6 (Zytel 73G301 NC010 from DuPont) and
nylon 66 (Zytel 70G30HSL NC010 from DuPont), each
reinforced with 30 wt% short glass fibres, were used in this
research. Prior to moulding, the nylon pellets were dried in
an oven at 80 C for approximately 24 h. An Engel 55 ton
injection moulding machine was used to mould plaques
with dimensions of 100 mm · 100 mm · 3.2 mm.
The glass fibre orientation within injection-moulded
plaques can significantly affect a reinforced material’s
mechanical properties. The fibre orientation is influenced
by the flow of the material during injection moulding Fig. 2. Pre-welding cut for nylon plaques used in butt welds. Dashed line
[5,11,13,14]. It is accepted that the preferential fibre orien- represents axis of cut and shaded surface represents moulded edges.
398 K.Y. Tsang et al. / Composites: Part B 39 (2008) 396–404
The welded specimens were subjected to static tensile
and tension-tension fatigue tests. For the static tensile test,
the non-welded and welded plaques were machined into
rectangular specimens with a gauge cross-section of
3.2 mm · 28 mm, as illustrated in Fig. 3. As can be seen
in Fig. 3, the axis for the tensile specimens is perpendicular
to the polymer flow direction and fibre orientation. For the
welded specimens, the flash is maintained intact (Fig. 3).
To minimize stress concentrations on the edge of machined
specimens, a numerically controlled milling machine was
used to produce the specimens with a smooth finish on
all edges. Following the ASTM D638 standard, the speci-
mens were tested at a constant displacement rate of
5 mm/minute until fracture. At least four trials were con-
ducted for each material and weld condition to determine
the standard deviation of the stress at fracture.
Similar procedures were used to manufacture the dog-
bone fatigue specimens. The only difference was that the
fatigue specimens had a gauge length of 50.8 mm and a
cross-section of 19.0 mm by 3.2 mm, as shown in Fig. 4.
Each specimen was examined closely to ensure excellent
alignment in the joints because misalignment could cause
stress-concentrations or ‘‘notch effects’’ that would
Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of tensile specimen. Arrows indicated the
direction of polymer flow.
Fig. 4. Geometry of non-welded and welded fatigue specimens.
adversely affect the fatigue life of the welded joints and
cause scatter in the data. The few that were observed to
exhibit poor alignment were rejected.
The specimens were subjected to sinusoidal tension–ten-
sion fatigue testing at constant amplitude with the ratio of
minimum stress to maximum stress, R = 0.1. Only stress
levels below the measured tensile strength were examined.
Three trials were conducted at each stress level. The endur-
ance limit stress was defined as the maximum stress at
which two specimens endured at least 5 · 106 cycles with-
out failure. Note that the stress-life curves are not flat at
this point and the fatigue limit, which is the stress below
which fatigue failure is not expected, is near but has not
yet been achieved. The test frequencies used for the speci-
mens were based on trial and error. For example, at stress
levels that were close to the tensile strength of the material,
3 Hz was used. If the specimen did not undergo thermal
fatigue, then a higher frequency was used. On the other
hand, if the specimen did show signs of thermal fatigue,
then the data were discarded and the test was repeated at
a lower frequency. The same frequency was used for all
specimens at each stress level to eliminate additional vari-
ables. For welded specimens, the test frequency ranged
from 5 to 10 Hz, while for non-welded specimens the fre-
quency ranged from 3 to 10 Hz. The maximum cyclic load
frequency of 10 Hz was chosen to avoid thermal fatigue.
Nylons are known to be hygroscopic polymers. All
properties are affected by moisture level. In this study,
the fatigue tests were performed in the dry as moulded
(DAM) condition. To maintain DAM condition, all speci-
mens were stored in aluminum-lined bags prior to use.
During fatigue testing, each specimen was bagged with
dry desiccant and sealed in plastic wrap surrounding the
gauge section. As an added control, the temperature of
the weld was monitored during testing by placing a thermo-
couple near the weld zone inside the desiccant wrap. Sharp
increases in temperature would indicate heating by mois-
ture-induced viscous heating of the nylon materials.
Finally, a scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used
to examine the fatigue fracture surfaces to help identify
the fatigue mechanisms operative in these glass reinforced
polymers.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Tensile results
Static tensile tests were performed on both welded and
non-welded specimens to characterize the strength and
consistency of the welds. A large variation in tensile
strengths would imply inconsistency in the plaque mould-
ing and vibration welding processes, which would likely
result in scatter in the fatigue data. The tensile test results
for reinforced nylon 6 and 66 are presented in Fig. 5.
The standard deviations are relatively small, suggesting
that there was consistency in the moulding and welding
processes.
 K.Y. Tsang et al. / Composites: Part B 39 (2008) 396–404 399

Fig. 5. Tensile strength for butt welds of nylon 6 and 66 reinforced with Fig. 6. S–N curves at R = 0.1 for glass fibre reinforced nylon 6 with weld
30 wt% glass fibres welded at 0.8 MPa (LP) and 4.0 MPa (HP) and non- pressure of 0.8 MPa (LP), 4.0 MPa (HP) and non-welded (arrows indicate
welded (NW). Shown with error bars representing ± one standard unbroken specimens). The shaded area represents the transition range.
deviation.

The non-welded specimens of reinforced nylon 66 had

statistically higher tensile strength than the welded speci-
mens. This result was expected as the glass fibres at the
weld are generally oriented in the weld plane and thus offer
little reinforcement when stress is applied normal to this
interface [5,14,16]. Among welded reinforced nylon 66
specimens, low weld pressure yields superior tensile weld
strengths than high weld pressure. This is again consistent
with the literature data [6,15].
For reinforced nylon 6, at 95% confidence interval, the
tensile strength of non-welded specimens was not signifi-
cantly different than that of specimens welded at low pres-
sure. This was unexpected and may be due to the
unexpectedly high standard deviation in the non-welded
tensile strength. However, the average tensile strength of Fig. 7. S–N curves at R = 0.1 for glass fibre reinforced nylon 66 with weld
pressure of 0.8 MPa (LP), 4.0 MPa (HP) and non-welded (arrows indicate
non-welded specimens was higher than those welded unbroken specimens). The shaded area represents the transition range.
at high pressure. Similar to nylon 66 results, specimens
welded at low pressure had a higher tensile weld strength
than those welded at high pressure. All welded specimens stress levels just below the average static strength relatively
failed at the weld during these tensile tests. This is believed long fatigue lives were typically observed; and at high stress
to be due to the less-favourable fibre orientation at the levels it was observed that thermomechanical fatigue or
weld and also due to small notches created by vibration ductile quasi-static failure was possible. Since the primary
welding. interest of this research was to assess the viability of vibra-
tion welding for applications requiring fatigue durability in
4. Fatigue results the long life region, the low-cycle and transition regions
received less attention.
The fatigue data are plotted as S–N curves (stress vs. The S–N curves are fitted with a Basquin equation of the
number of cycles to failure) for short glass fibre reinforced form
nylon 6 and 66 welded at low (0.8 MPa) and high
(4.0 MPa) pressure in Figs. 6 and 7. Non-welded specimen S max ¼ AN bf ð1Þ
data are also displayed on the graphs for reference. To dis-
tinguish high cycle fatigue from low cycle fatigue regions, a where Nf is the number of cycle to failure and A and b are
transition region is shaded on the graphs. The curves are coefficients obtained from the experimental data. The coef-
extrapolated to their static tensile strength (as dashed lines) ficients, endurance limits, transition ranges, and correlation
to complete the fatigue profiles. The lack of data in the coefficients (R2) are listed in Table 1. The coefficients listed
extrapolated regions for some conditions is due to sev- in Table 1 are strictly fitting parameters valid within the
eral factors. There was a limited number of specimens high cycle testing range and do not necessarily have a phys-
machined from the batch of nylon resin available; at cyclic ical meaning.
400 K.Y. Tsang et al. / Composites: Part B 39 (2008) 396–404
Table 1
Fatigue S–N curve data for glass fibres reinforced nylon 6 and 66 welded at low and high welding pressure
Material Welding pressure Coefficient A
(MPa) (MPa)
Nylon 6 w GF 0.8 (low) 198
Nylon 6 w GF 4.0 (high) 98
Nylon 6 w GF Non-welded 163
Nylon 66 w GF 0.8 (low) 98
Nylon 66 w GF 4.0 (high) 98
Nylon 66 w GF Non-welded 162
From Figs. 6 and 7, the S–N curves are linear and par-
allel to each other in the low cycle fatigue region (1–100
cycles). Beyond 1000 cycles, in the high cycle fatigue
region, the maximum stress decreases with number of
cycles for all conditions. The transition point between high
and low cycles lies within the range of 100–1000 cycles for
both materials. The transition range (1000–10 000 cycles)
for unreinforced nylon observed in a prior study [9] is an
order of magnitude larger than for the reinforced nylons.
This may be due to the formation of microcracks at the
ends of glass fibres that are often observed in the matrix
of reinforced plastics [17,18]. The occurrence of these
microcracks accelerates the crack initiation process, and
may cause a shift in the transition range to a lower number
of cycles.
5. Effect of vibration welding
Important trends were observed in the data presented in
the S–N curves of Figs. 6 and 7. As expected, they show
that the fatigue lives of the non-welded specimens were
longer compared with the welded specimens, i.e., welding
reduces fatigue life. For reinforced nylon 6, at a stress level
of 60 MPa, the fatigue life of the non-welded specimens
was at least one order of magnitude longer than welded
ones. Similarly for nylon 66 at a stress level of 70 MPa,
the fatigue life of the non-welded specimens is three orders
of magnitude longer than the welded specimens. Moreover,
the endurance limit for non-welded reinforced nylon 66
(60 MPa) was comparable to the tensile strength of the
reinforced nylon 66 welded at high pressure (61 MPa). This
is consistent with the short–term properties of nylon where
the non-welded specimens have higher static tensile
strength than the welded ones. The ‘‘strength-life equal
rank assumption’’ [19,20], which proposes that a material
with greater tensile strength will have longer fatigue life,
appears to be valid. This trend is consistent with the fatigue
behaviour of unreinforced nylons observed by the authors
[9].
The reduced fatigue lives of the welded specimens were
probably caused in part by the glass fibre orientation at
the weld as mentioned earlier in the tensile test results,
where the fibres were aligned parallel to the weld plane
and offered little reinforcement, when stress was applied
normal to this interface [6,15]. Another cause could be
the stress concentrations, or notches, created at the weld
Exponent Endurance limit (MPa) Transition range R2
b based on 5 · 106 cycles (cycles)
0.118 30 100–1000 0.87
0.071 30 100–1000 0.93
0.081 50 N/A 0.96
0.071 30 100–1000 0.93
0.071 30 100–1000 0.93
0.060 60 N/A 0.97
line during vibration welding which are ideal sites for
crack-initiation. With the presence of notches, the number
of loading cycles needed for crack initiation is decreased
and the total fatigue life is dominated by crack propagation
[8].
Weld details introduce stress concentrations into speci-
mens and components and are typically the weak spots
especially in fatigue loading. The reduction in fatigue
strength due to a stress concentration is determined by
comparing the fatigue strength of the unwelded material
to that of the welded one. The fatigue notch factor, Kf, is
the ratio of the fatigue strength of the unwelded material
to that of a welded specimen at a given fatigue life. It is
a combination of material and geometry effects and gener-
ally increases for most materials as a function of life up to
the fatigue limit. In this study, fatigue notch factors were
calculated for the vibration welded specimens in the long
life region (105 cycles) and at the endurance limit (5 · 106
cycles). The magnitude of Kf was 1.2 and 1.6 for reinforced
nylon 6 welded at low and high pressures, respectively, at
105 cycles and 1.5 for both weld pressure at 5 · 106 cycles.
For nylon 66 reinforced with glass fibres, Kf was 1.7 and
1.9 for low and high pressures, respectively, at 105 cycles
and 2.0 for both weld pressures at 5 · 106 cycles. Two
trends were seen. As the stress decreased, Kf increased;
and as the static strength of the material increases, the Kf
value also increased.
6. Effect of weld pressure
From Fig. 6 for the welded reinforced nylon 6, it was
observed that weld pressure had an effect on fatigue life
especially in the low cycle region. At stress levels of 60
and 50 MPa, the fatigue life of reinforced nylon 6 welded
at low pressure was an order of magnitude greater than
for nylon 6 welded at high pressure. At the stress level of
40 MPa, the fatigue life of specimens welded at low pres-
sure was 50% greater than that of specimens welded at high
pressure. This is also consistent with the findings on the
tensile strength of the welded specimens in this study and
with the ‘‘strength-life equal rank assumption’’.
For glass fibre-reinforced nylon 66 (at the 95% confi-
dence level), weld pressure did not have a significant effect
on fatigue life especially in the high cycle region. This trend
was also observed in unreinforced nylon 66 [9]. As shown
 K.Y. Tsang et al. / Composites: Part B 39 (2008) 396–404 401

in Fig. 7, beyond 104 cycles the S–N curves for low and
high pressure welds converged.
According to Stokes [2], there is an inverse relationship
between the weld pressure and the melt film thickness. It is
believed that a thick melt film increases the probability of
the glass fibres reorienting themselves towards being per-
pendicular to the weld line [6,21–23]. As a consequence,
the tensile strength is increased, and according to the
‘‘strength-life equal rank assumption’’, the fatigue lives of
the specimens are improved, when the weld pressure is
decreased. This theory is supported by evidence observed
on the fatigue fracture surface under the SEM as shown
in Fig. 8a and b.
Fig. 8 shows the fracture surfaces of reinforced nylon 6
specimens welded at low and high pressures. The low weld
pressure condition shows more fibres orientated perpendic-
ular to the weld plane, which may have increased the weld
strength and resulted in a longer fatigue life. This is consis-
tent with the fracture surface observed in previous studies
[6,15].
Fig. 9a and b show the fatigue fracture surfaces of rein-
forced nylon 66 specimens welded at low and high pres-
sures. The glass fibres are positioned parallel to the weld
plane with the same (transverse to the load) orientation

Fig. 9. (a) Nylon 66 w GF welded at low pressure and (b) nylon 66 w GF

welded at high pressure, the arrows indicate the preferential fibre
orientation in the bulk moulded part.

for both specimens welded at low as well as high pressures.

This is consistent with their fatigue data presented earlier,
where they have similar fatigue stress-life profiles.

7. Effect of glass fibres

Fig. 10 shows the effect of glass fibres on nylon 6 welded

Fig. 8. (a) Nylon 6 w GF welded at low pressure. Notice the random
direction and vertical positioning of the fibres. Some of the fibres that are
positioned perpendicular to the weld surface are marked with circles and
(b) nylon 6 w GF welded at high pressure; the arrow indicates the
preferred fibre orientation.
at low pressure. As can be seen in Fig. 10, there is a signif-
icant difference between the curves of nylon 6 with and
without glass fibres welded at low pressure throughout
the low and high cycle fatigue region. The fatigue lives of
the reinforced nylon 6 are longer than unreinforced nylon
6 by an order of magnitude at stress levels of 40 and
50 MPa. The endurance limit stresses are 30 MPa and
20 MPa, for reinforced and unreinforced nylon 6, respec-
tively. The nylon 6 specimens with and without glass fibres
welded at high pressure followed a similar pattern. This is
consistent with the ‘‘strength-life equal rank assumption’’
mentioned earlier.
Fig. 11 shows the effect of glass fibres on nylon 66
welded at low pressure. The S–N data for reinforced
and unreinforced nylon 66 are indistinguishable in the
low cycle fatigue and transition regions. In the high cycle
region, the S–N curves begin to diverge from each other.
At a stress level of 40 MPa, the fatigue life of the rein-
forced nylon is longer than that of the unreinforced nylon
402 K.Y. Tsang et al. / Composites: Part B 39 (2008) 396–404

Table 2
re/ru Ratio for non-welded and welded unreinforced and 30 wt% glass
fibre reinforced nylon 6 and 66 welded at low and high pressure
Material Pressure (MPa) re/ru
Nylon 6 w GF Non-welded 0.48
Nylon 6 w GF 0.8 (low) 0.33
Nylon 6 w GF 4.0 (high) 0.42
Nylon 66 w GF Non-welded 0.52
Nylon 66 w GF 0.8 (low) 0.39
Nylon 66 w GF 4.0 (high) 0.49
Nylon 6 [9] Non-welded 0.42
Nylon 6 [9] 0.8 (low) 0.32
Nylon 6 [9] 4.0 (high) 0.29
Nylon 66 [9] Non-welded 0.36
Nylon 66 [9] 0.8 (low) 0.27
Nylon 66 [9] 4.0 (high) 0.27
Fig. 10. S–N curves at R = 0.1 for nylon 6 compounds with weld pressure
of 0.8 MPa (arrows indicate unbroken specimens).
can be related to the tensile strength, this can reduce the
amount of effort required to estimate the material endur-
ance limit. The ratio of endurance limit stress to tensile
strength (re/ru) is called the fatigue endurance ratio. The
results for the nylon 6 and 66 specimens examined are pre-
sented in Table 2.
From Table 2, the lowest observed fatigue endurance
ratio for glass fibre reinforced vibration-welded nylon spec-
imens is 0.33. The average value for all the welded rein-
forced nylons is 0.40. Hence, the following rule of thumb
is conservatively suggested: the fatigue limit stress at
R = 0.1 can be estimated as 0.33 of the tensile strength
for the vibration-welded reinforced nylons. Similar to the
tensile and fatigue data, the re/ru ratios for the unwelded
specimens are superior to the welded ones.
Fig. 11. S–N curves at R = 0.1 for nylon 66 compounds with weld From a study performed by Stokes [8], the re/ru ratio
pressure of 0.8 MPa (arrows indicate unbroken specimens). of unreinforced vibration-welded polycarbonate (PC),
poly(butylenes terephtalate) (PBT), polyetherimide (PEI)
by an order of magnitude and nylon 66 has a higher and modified polyphenylene oxide resin (M-PPO) welded
endurance limit. The glass fibres may not play an effective at 120 Hz and tested at 10 Hz with R = 0.1 is of the order
role in the low cycle fatigue region, and only become sig- of 0.3 and they all failed away from the welds. In a prior
nificant in the high cycle fatigue region (>50 000 cycles) study on unreinforced nylon 6 and nylon 66 [9], the authors
for nylon 66. One possible reason for this phenomenon found the re/ru ratio to be 0.3 under the same loading
is the glass fibre orientation at the weld. Compared to conditions. Therefore, the re/ru ratio observed for the
nylon 6, the fibres in nylon 66 may be more oriented in vibration-welded reinforced nylons with low and high weld
the plane of the weld (this is indeed observed and dis- pressures was near the re/ru ratios observed for various
cussed in the fracture surface section of this paper). butt-welded thermoplastics under similar testing conditions.
Under higher stresses, and in spite of the presence of glass Rules of thumb for endurance ratios are well known for
fibres, the strain at the weld exceeds the elongation at other fatigue conditions in metals. At R = 1, steel and
break of this poorly oriented composite material and fail- aluminium typically have a re/ru ratio of 0.5 and 0.3,
ure quickly occurs. Under lower stresses, the rigidity of respectively, [24]. This ratio is known to decrease with
the composite material at the weld interface lowers the increasing R ratio and the presence of welds. When the R
strain relative to that experienced in unreinforced mate- ratio is increased to 0.1, the re/ru ratio is reduced to about
rial, and therefore reduces the rate of crack growth. The 0.33 and 0.2 for steel and aluminum alloys, respectively.
fatigue properties of the reinforced material are thus Nylon 6 and nylon 66 with 30 wt% glass fibres have a
improved in the lower stress region. re/ru ratio similar to that of unwelded steels.

8. Fatigue endurance ratio 9. Temperature profiles

Fatigue tests can be extremely time consuming; tensile Fig. 12 shows the maximum temperatures that were
tests are much less so. If the endurance limit of the material recorded for the welded reinforced nylon specimens.
 K.Y. Tsang et al. / Composites: Part B 39 (2008) 396–404
Fig. 12. Maximum temperature reached by selected specimens for all
nylon compounds, weld pressure and stress levels.
As can be seen in Fig. 12, the temperatures of the spec-
imens were well below the glass transition temperature, Tg,
of their corresponding resins and no thermal fatigue took
place.
Figs. 13 and 14 present typical temperature–time
profiles for the materials tested in this study. For both
Fig. 13. Temperature profile for nylon 6 reinforced with glass fibres
welded at low pressure at various stress levels.
Fig. 14. Temperature profile for nylon 66 reinforced with glass fibres
welded at low pressure at various stress levels.
403
reinforced nylons, the temperature profile is reasonably
steady during testing at various stress levels and
frequencies.
10. Fracture surface
For reinforced material, fatigue crack propagation pro-
cess is more local and on a smaller scale compared with
that of the unreinforced material due to the presence of
the glass fibres [17,18]. Therefore, no crack or other charac-
teristics can be seen with unaided visual inspection. How-
ever, under SEM with a higher magnification, interesting
fracture surfaces are observed. Fig. 15 shows the fracture
surfaces observed for both reinforced nylons welded under
low pressure. Thumbnails along the edge of the fracture
surfaces are seen in the micrographs. Once again, the
cracks appear to originate from the edge due to the notch
effect.
The fracture surfaces for reinforced nylons at various
weld pressures, stress levels and materials are similar; there-
fore, a similar fracture mechanism is assumed. Horst and
Spoormaker [17,18] suggested the following fracture mech-
anisms. The fibre ends are the sites with the highest stress
and the cracks begin to grow at those locations. Cracks
Fig. 15. SEM micrographs showing the thumbnails of: (a) nylon 6 with
30% GF welded at low weld pressure and tested at 50 MPa and (b) nylon
66 with 30% GF welded at low weld pressure and tested at 35 MPa.
404 K.Y. Tsang et al. / Composites: Part B 39 (2008) 396–404
Fig. 16. SEM micrograph of nylon 6 with 30 wt% glass fibres showing the
fibres de-bonded from the resin.
continue to grow with the cyclic loading and the fibres
de-bond from the matrix. The cracks at the matrix/fibres
interface grow into the matrix and finally, fast fracture
occurs. Fig. 16 shows a typical SEM fractograph illustrat-
ing fibre de-bonding and fibre pull-out for a nylon 6 spec-
imen tested in the present study. The evidence on all the
fractographs for nylon 6 and nylon 66 specimens observed
in this study is consistent with the proposed fracture
mechanism.
11. Conclusions
The fatigue stress-life curves of glass fibre reinforced
nylon 6 welded at 4.0 MPa and nylon 66 welded at
0.8 MPa and 4.0 MPa are all similar at R = 0.1, while
nylon 6 welded at 0.8 MPa has slightly better fatigue prop-
erties. In general, low weld pressure appears to give better
fatigue performance than high weld pressure in vibration
welded nylons. In the absence of hysteretic heating, fatigue
cracks initiate in the weld material. Fibre de-bonding and
matrix microcracking lead to fatigue crack propagation
and fast fracture under cyclic loading. A rule of thumb is
suggested for vibration-welded nylons reinforced with
30 wt% short glass fibres: the fatigue limit stress at
R = 0.1 is 0.33 of the tensile strength. Vibration-welded
reinforced nylon specimens retain a relatively high fraction
of their tensile strengths under cyclic loading. Hence, vibra-
tion welding of short glass fibres reinforced nylons appears
to be a viable process for fatigue sensitive components.
Acknowledgements
Financial support of this research by NSERC Auto21
NCE and the Centre for Automotive Materials and
Manufacturing is gratefully acknowledged. Additional rec-
ognition to Alcan International, Kingston Research and
Development Centre and DuPont Canada Research and
Development for their in-kind support of testing facilities
and materials.
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