Ultrasonic Welding of Advanced

Thermoplastic Composites:
An Investigation on
Energy-Directing Surfaces
IRENE FERNANDEZ VILLEGAS, HARALD E. N. BERSEE
Design and Production of Composite Structures, Delft University of Technology, Kluyverweg 1,
2629 HS Delft, The Netherlands
Received: October 20, 2009
Accepted: January 2, 2010

ABSTRACT: Ultrasonic welding is considered as one of the most promising

welding techniques for continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites.
Intermolecular friction within the bulk, resulting from the application of
ultrasonic waves applied on the surfaces, generates the heat required for welding
to take place at the interface of the joining members via the so-called “energy
directors” (EDs). Energy directors consist of resin protrusions or artificially
produced asperities on the composite surfaces and play an important role both in
the welding process and in the quality of the resulting welds. This paper presents
the results of a study on the effects of configuration of different EDs on the
ultrasonic welding of carbon fiber/polyetherimide advanced thermoplastic
composites in a near-field setup. Triangular EDs were molded on the surface of
consolidated composite laminates with a hot platen press. Single
lap-shear-welded samples were produced to investigate the influence of the
orientation of the EDs with respect to the load direction, as well as the
configuration of multiple EDs. The results indicate that the configuration of
multiple transverse EDs was more effective in covering the overlap area, once the
resin has melted, causing only a minimum fiber disruption at the welding

Correspondence to: Irene Fernandez Villegas; e-mail:

I.FernandezVillegas@tudelft.nl.

Advances in Polymer Technology, Vol. 29, No. 2, 112–121 (2010)


C 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
 ULTRASONIC WELDING OF ADVANCED THERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITES

interface. 
C 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Adv Polym Techn 29: 112–121, 2010;

Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI

10.1002/adv.20178

KEY WORDS: Composites, Energy directors, Processing, Thermoplastics,

Welding

protrusions, are required on the surfaces in order to

Introduction be welded. Energy directors play an important role
in the welding process and their morphology, size,

F usion bonding, also known as welding, is con-

sidered to be a technique ideally suited for
joining continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic
and configuration affect the quality of the resulting
welds.2,3
The process of ultrasonic welding of thermoplas-
tic polymers has been extensively investigated in
composites (CFTPCs). It takes advantage of the main
the last decades. A large number of experimen-
characteristic of thermoplastic resins related to their
tal studies provide a good insight into the nature
ability to melt and subsequently cool without any
of the process.4−7 Comparatively limited research
change in their properties. Fusion bonding elimi-
work has been published on ultrasonic welding of
nates the well-known drawbacks of traditional join-
CFTPCs. Benatar and Gutowski8 introduced ul-
ing techniques, such as stress concentration and
trasonic welding in the field of advanced
intense labor (mechanical joining) or extensive sur-
fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites. They
face preparation and long curing cycles (adhesive
identified ultrasonic welding as a complex process
bonding). As a result, the possibility of assembling
consisting of five distinct highly coupled subpro-
structures by welding adds to the numerous advan-
cesses: (i) mechanics and vibration of the parts; (ii)
tages of thermoplastic composites over thermosets,
viscoelastic heating of the thermoplastic resin; (iii)
such as improved toughness, better environmental
heat transfer; (iv) flow and wetting; and (v) inter-
resistance, shorter processing times, nonflammabil-
molecular diffusion. Because of the difficulties re-
ity, and infinite shelf life.
lated to applying EDs on sheet components, the
Fusion-bonding techniques are usually classified
possibility of welding CFTPCs without EDs was in-
by the type of heating being used. There are nu-
vestigated by several researchers.9,10 Liu et al.2 per-
merous means of providing the interface with re-
formed an experimental study, based on the Taguchi
quired heat for welding. Hot plates, hot gas, spin-
method, related to the factors influencing the weld
ning, ultrasonic and radio signals, microwaves, the
strength of thermoplastic composites. They also in-
Joule effect in a resistor, laser, and induction are some
vestigated the influence of the shape of the ED on
of them.1 From the variety of techniques available,
the performance of the weld.
three are traditionally regarded as the most promis-
This paper presents an experimental study con-
ing for CFTPCs, namely, induction, ultrasonic, and
cerning the effect of several configurations of EDs
resistance welding.
in the quality and mechanical performance of the
Ultrasonic welding, unlike the two other welding
weld. First, the effect of the direction of the ED,
techniques, belongs to the group of friction-welding
with respect to the load direction, was investigated.
techniques. The principle of heat generation is based
Second, attention was paid to the effect of the size
on the conversion of high-frequency mechanical
and distribution of multiple EDs.
vibrations into heat through combined contact sur-
face and intermolecular friction. The major advan-
tages offered by ultrasonic welding are extremely
short welding times, ease of automation, and excel-
lent quality. Likewise, ultrasonic welding does not Experimental
require the use of any foreign material in the joint,
such as the resistive inserts used for resistance weld-
WELDING SETUP
ing. However, to concentrate ultrasonic heating at
the welding interface, energy directors (EDs), that The welding setup used in this study is schemati-
is, artificially made asperities in the form of resin cally shown in Fig. 1. The power supply, denoted as

Advances in Polymer Technology DOI 10.1002/adv 113

ULTRASONIC WELDING OF ADVANCED THERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITES
FIGURE 1. Schematic ultrasonic welding setup.
“electric generator,” transforms the main line elec-
tric current into controlled high-frequency current.
The generator output frequency (typically between
20 and 40 kHz) determines the operating frequency
of the entire welding system. The piezoelectric con-
verter, or transducer, converts the electrical signal
into mechanical vibrations. To transfer the mechan-
ical vibrations (ultrasonic waves) to the work piece,
the transducer is connected to the horn (also called
sonotrode), which is placed at right angles in con-
tact with the part to be welded. The shape of the
horn, that is, its mass distribution with respect to the
nodal plane determines its ratio of amplification. To
vary the amplitude of vibration without reshaping
the horn, a booster is usually placed between the
transducer and the horn. The product of the ampli-
fication ratios of the booster and the horn provides
the amplification ratio of the system.
The support collar of the transducer-booster-horn
system is attached to a pneumatic piston that pro-
vides vertical movement along with the static force
applied through the horn to the workpiece (welding
force). Finally, the welding fixture or anvil provides
support and positioning of the parts to be welded
and avoids unwanted movements during the weld-
ing operation
FIGURE 2. Design of the shifting clamp.
114
An enhanced 1000-W Branson 8200 ultrasonic
welder with an output frequency of 20 kHz was used
in this study. An aluminium booster with 1:1 gain to-
gether with a horn specifically designed for welding
standard lap-shear (LS) specimens provided the re-
quired amplitude. The samples were welded in a
near-field mode.
WELDING FIXTURE
A specific aluminium fixture with a so-called
shifting clamp was designed for positioning the LS
specimens to be welded. The fixture provided per-
fect positioning and alignment of the specimens and
prevented them from shifting during the application
of the ultrasonic vibration. The design of the shift-
ing clamp is schematically shown in Fig. 2. The up-
per specimen was clamped between the aluminium
and steel blocks, using the middle bolt. Any move-
ment of the specimen on a horizontal plane was thus
avoided, while it could still move as a rigid solid in
the vertical direction (together with the aluminium
and steel blocks). Therefore, the samples could be
welded with minimum bending in the upper speci-
men because of melting of the ED. The actual fixture
with the shifting clamp is shown in Fig. 3.
MATERIALS AND SAMPLE
MANUFACTURING
The material used in this study was a continuous
carbon fiber-reinforced polyetherimide (CF/PEI).
The preimpregnated material, supplied by Ten Cate
Advanced Composites, the Netherlands, had a five-
harness satin weave configuration and 42.4% wt.
resin content. Six-ply laminates, with dimensions
of 500 × 500 mm and a [0/90]6 lay-up sequence,
were consolidated in a hot platen press. The stacks
of preimpregnated material were placed between
two aluminium plates, coated with release agent
prior to every pressing cycle. The laminates were
Advances in Polymer Technology DOI 10.1002/adv
 ULTRASONIC WELDING OF ADVANCED THERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITES
FIGURE 3. Actual welding fixture and shifting clamp.
compression molded at 320◦ C and 1.0 MPa. The pre-
heating time was 35 min and the consolidation time
was 15 min. The laminates were subsequently cooled
down to 170◦ C while the consolidation pressure was
maintained. The final thickness of the laminates was
2 mm.
To apply the EDs on the contact surfaces of the
specimens, specific molds were designed and manu-
factured. Laminates with dimensions 320 × 205 mm
were cut from the consolidated plates and placed in
these molds. A typical mold design and the proce-
dure for applying the EDs are illustrated in Fig. 4.
The grooves carved in one of the sides of each mold
(one different mold for each ED configuration tested)
were filled with PEI powder before positioning the
laminate. The closed mold was subsequently placed
in the hot platen press and the consolidation pro-
cedure was repeated with a consolidation time of
5 min. Finally, 25.4 × 101.6 samples were sawed from
the resulting laminates.
PROCEDURE
Standard LS specimens with a number of dif-
ferently sized and oriented EDs were used in this
study. The geometry of the specimens is schemati-
cally shown in Fig. 5. On the basis of previous experi-
Advances in Polymer Technology DOI 10.1002/adv
ence, a basic ED was defined. The basic ED (denoted
as T1 ) had a triangular shape with a 90◦ angle at its
top, base of 4 mm, and height of 2 mm and length
of 25.4 mm, equal to the width of the samples to be
welded. As depicted in Fig. 5, it is a single ED placed
transversally to the test load and located at the mid-
dle of the overlap. The length of the overlap was
15 mm in this study. The different configurations of
EDs under investigation were derived from T1 .
All the welds were performed under the same
welding conditions. The welding time was 3.5 s, the
hold time was set at 3.0 s, and the welding pressure
was 4 MPa. The peak-to-peak amplitude of vibra-
tion was 50 μm. Two aspects of the influence of the
ED on the strength and quality of the weld were
investigated.
First, the influence of the orientation of the ED was
studied. The standard T1 ED was compared with two
combinations of EDs parallel to the direction of the
test load, a single parallel ED, denoted as P1 , and
a double parallel ED, denoted as 2P1/2 (Fig. 6). The
sizes of the parallel EDs were determined so that the
amount of resin available at the welding interface
was equal for each configuration.
Second, the influence of multiple transverse EDs
was examined. Four different types of energy-
directing surfaces were analyzed and compared to
115
ULTRASONIC WELDING OF ADVANCED THERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITES

FIGURE 4. Mold design (top) and procedure for applying the energy directors (bottom).

the basic T1 configuration. The main characteristics Visual observation of the fracture surfaces pro-
of these configurations are outlined in Table I. Sub- vided valuable information about the quality of the
scripts 1, 1/2, and 1/4 are directly related to the size weld. Two modes of failure were primarily experi-
of the basic ED. Therefore, the cross-section areas enced in LSS tests, interlaminar and interfacial fail-
of T1/2 and T1/4 EDs are 0.5 and 0.25 times, respec- ure. Failure was considered interlaminar when it
tively, that of the basic T1 ED. As indicated in Table I, occurred within the bulk structure of the material,
the overlap length of the T1 /T1 configuration was displaying a visible fiber pullout feature. This type
increased to 22.5 mm in order to keep a distance of of failure usually leads to the highest LSS values,
7.5 mm between the T1 upper and lower EDs. indicative of high weld quality. Interfacial failure
Lap-shear strength (LSS) tests, as well as visual
and microscope observations, were used to evalu-
ate the quality of the welds. In the absence of a spe-
cific standard test method for welded specimens, the
tests were performed according to ASTM D 3163-01
method normally used for adhesive bonds in rigid
plastics. Eight to fifteen samples were welded for
each type of energy-directing surface. The welds and
the tests were performed under standard ambient
conditions, that is, 21◦ C and 50% relative humidity.

FIGURE 5. Standard lap-shear sample with basic

energy director. FIGURE 6. Energy directors with different orientations.

116 Advances in Polymer Technology DOI 10.1002/adv

 ULTRASONIC WELDING OF ADVANCED THERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITES
TABLE I
Different ConÞgurations of Transverse Energy Directors
Configuration
2T1/4 /T1/2
2T1/4
T1/2
T1 /T1
occurs at the interface between the laminate and the
ED and yields lower LSS values, which is indicative
of poor bonding. The size of the welded area was
also measured on the fracture surfaces.
Results and Discussion
ORIENTATION OF THE ENERGY
DIRECTORS
As mentioned earlier, three types of EDs were
tested: the basic transverse ED, T1 , was compared
both with the single parallel, P1 , and with the dou-
ble parallel, 2P1/2 (Fig. 6). Twelve specimens were
welded for each ED type. Figure 7 shows the results
in terms of LSS values and amount of welded area.
Because of the large variations in the welded area,
two LSS values were recorded for each type of ED.
These were coded LSS1 , for the values calculated as
the maximum load supported by the joint divided
by the entire overlap area; and LSS2 , for the val-
ues calculated as the maximum load divided by the
FIGURE 7. Results for T1 , P1 , and 2P1/2 configurations in terms of amount of welded area (left) and lap-shear strength
(LSS) (right).
Advances in Polymer Technology DOI 10.1002/adv
Resin Volume Overlap
(Compared to T1 ) Length (mm)
1.0 15.0
0.5 15.0
0.5 15.0
2.0 22.5
actual welded area. Therefore, LSS1 quantifies the
effectiveness of the overall joint whereas LSS2 is an
indicator of the quality of the weld, which is related
to the failure mode.
Figure 7 (left) shows that the average welded area
is around 90% of the total overlap area for both con-
figurations T1 and 2P1/2 , whereas for P1 this area
decreases to approximately 80%. Therefore, the dis-
tribution of molten resin from the ED to the welding
area during the initial stages of the welding process
is more effective in the case of the single transverse
ED than in the case of the single parallel ED. This
result is consistent with the fact that for the single
transverse ED, the resin needs to flow sideways to
cover up to 7.5 mm (half the overlap length) on both
sides of its center line. In the case of the single par-
allel ED, however, the resin needs to undergo suffi-
cient flow to cover a distance of up to 12.7 mm (i.e.,
half the width of the sample) on both sides from the
center line. Consequently, the distribution of resin
within the overlap is improved when two paral-
lel EDs are used instead of just one, as indicated
by the results in Fig. 7 (left). It is also important to
note in this figure that the scatter in the welded area
117
ULTRASONIC WELDING OF ADVANCED THERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITES

FIGURE 8. Results for T1 , 2T1/4 /T1/2 , 2T1/4 , and T1 /T1 energy director configurations in terms of welded area (left) and
lap-shear strength (LSS) (right).

for the two solutions involving parallel EDs is quite MULTIPLE ENERGY DIRECTORS
large as compared with that for the transverse ED.
Four different configurations with transverse
This phenomenon can be attributed to the melting
EDs were tested: 2T1/4 /T1/2 , T1/2 , 2T1/4 , and T1 /T1 .
of the EDs, which results from the combination of
The first one had the same volume of resin as T1
ultrasonic vibrations and the applied pressure
configuration, the second and the third had half that
(hence the resulting strain).6 When the transverse T1
volume, and the fourth had twice the volume of
ED is used, the longest side of the slender sonotrode
T1 . Fifteen samples were welded and tested for the
completely rests on the ED. This is not the case,
first configuration, whereas 8 samples were welded
however, when using the parallel ED configuration.
and tested for each of the second, third, and fourth
As a result, variations in the actual pressure ap-
configurations.
plied on the ED and the related melting scheme are
Figure 8 summarizes the results obtained for
more likely to arise when a parallel ED configura-
these samples. Figure 8 (left) shows again how mul-
tion is used, which gives a smaller support for the
tiple EDs contribute to an increase in the size of
sonotrode.
welded area. This stands clear from the fact that the
The data in Fig. 7 (right) shows that the LSS2 val-
T1/2 configuration yields a welded area of only 77%
ues for the three configurations are quite similar,
of the whole overlap area. On the other hand, split-
which denotes a comparable quality of the welds.
ting the single ED in two (2T1/4 ), the coverage of the
An interlaminar type failure identified from details
overlap area increases to as much as 90%. Such an
of the fracture surfaces on the majority of the samples
effect is not observed, however, when comparing the
is supportive of this observation. However, the rela-
T1 and 2T1/4 /T1/2 configurations, which is believed
tively high scatter of the LSS2 values (between 6.9%
to be caused by the fact that in order to maintain
and 8.7% of the average value) does not make it pos-
an overlap length of 15 mm, the distance between
sible to conclude that parallel and transverse EDs
the multiple EDs in the 2T1/4 /T1/2 configuration was
produce exactly the same type of welds. In particu-
too small to allow the complete flow of the molten
lar, these results neither contradict nor support the
material.
findings of other researchers, which suggest the oc-
The LSS2 values for all the configurations tested
currence of a molecular alignment in the transverse
are between 32 and 36 MPa, except for the T1 /T1 con-
direction relative to test load (parallel EDs), resulting
figuration, which gives a value of only 23.90 MPa. An
in decreased strength of the joint.4 The LSS1 values in
explanation for this can be found in the failure mode
Fig. 7 (right) also show that there is a decrease in the
of the samples. Most of the samples of the T1 /T1
LSS of the P1 joints, which is caused by the decrease
configuration showed an interfacial fracture mode
in the welded area. Owing to the high scatter in the
with extensive flash of molten resin, indicating that
actual welded area as well, the variability of the LSS1
the amount of resin available to form the joint was
values becomes even greater than that found for the
excessive. The majority of the samples belonging to
LSS2 values, which is 9% of average LSS1 for the T1
the rest of the groups showed, however, an interlam-
configuration and 14% for the P1 and 2P1/2 configu-
inar type of failure with part of the uppermost fabric
rations.

118 Advances in Polymer Technology DOI 10.1002/adv

 ULTRASONIC WELDING OF ADVANCED THERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITES
FIGURE 9. Cross-sections of welds with different
energy director configurations (from top to bottom): P1 ,
2P1/2 , T1/2 /T1/2 , and 2T1/4 /T1/2 .
layer being ripped off from one or both of the sam-
ples. The highest LSS1 and LSS2 values were yielded
by 2T1/4 /T1/2 EDs, although the relatively high scat-
ter in all the results does not allow to draw definitive
conclusions.
Apart from a potential improvement in the cov-
erage of the overlap area, there is a clear advan-
tage in using multiple EDs, which derives from the
decreased pressure at their tips, thereby reducing
the disturbance of the fibers in the outermost lay-
ers of the welded parts. This effect is clearly vis-
ible in Fig. 9, in which microscopic images of four
samples welded with different ED configurations are
shown. The fibers are clearly disrupted when a sin-
gle ED (top micrograph) is used and the result is
undoubtedly improved when gradually increasing
the number of EDs (two micrographs in the middle
for a two-ED configuration and bottom micrograph
for a three-ED configuration).
SCATTER
As pointed out in the previous sections, a rela-
tively high scatter affecting both the welded areas,
the LSS2 values, and consequently the LSS1 values
was observed in most of the results. Some additional
experiments showed that the scatter in the LSS2 val-
ues (standard deviations ranging from 4.6% to 12.2%
of the mean value) might be drastically reduced if the
primary “apparent orientation of the fibers” is taken
into account during the preparation of the samples.
The “apparent orientation of the fibers” is defined
here as the direction of the fibers closest to the sur-
face, which is especially of interest when working
with laminates reinforced with nonplain woven fab-
Advances in Polymer Technology DOI 10.1002/adv
FIGURE 10. Samples cut out of the same carbon
fiber/polyphenylene sulfide (CF/PPS) laminate
(five-harness satin fabric) with a different primary
apparent orientation of the fibers with regard to their
longitudinal axis.
rics. Given a [0/90]n laminate with a five-harness
satin fabric (nonplain fabric but with a balanced,
50:50, distribution of the fibers), the primary appar-
ent orientation of the fibers on a rectangular sample
can be either parallel or transverse to the longitudi-
nal direction of the sample depending on the direc-
tion of the cut (Fig. 10).
Ten samples were welded with a multiple ED con-
figuration and were subsequently tested. For five of
these samples, the primary apparent orientation of
the fibers at both welding surfaces was parallel to the
longitudinal axis of the sample and thus to the load
direction, whereas it was transverse to the load di-
rection in the other five samples. The average LSS2
values and the corresponding standard deviations
TABLE II
Lap Shear Strength of Samples with Different Appar-
ent Fiber Orientation
Primary Average Standard
Apparent Fiber LSS2 Deviation
Orientation (MPa) (MPa) [%]
Parallel to the load direction 40.10 0.57 [1.43]
Transverse to the load direction 31.14 1.24 [3.97]
119
ULTRASONIC WELDING OF ADVANCED THERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITES
FIGURE 11. Fiber bundles that need to be severed (X)
to rip off a certain patch of the outermost layer of the
composite when the primary apparent orientation of the
fibers is transverse (left) or parallel (right) to the load
direction.
are displayed in Table II. The data in this table, while
on one hand, show that the standard deviations is
quite low, on the other hand, they indicate that a
considerable difference exist in the LSS values of the
two types of joint considered. This difference can be
explained taking into account the fact that, owing to
the interlaminar nature of the fracture experienced
by the welds, the apparent primary orientation of the
fibers determines the number of fiber bundles that
need to be severed in the fracture process, in view
of the fact that this number is much higher when
the fibers closest to the surface are parallel to the
load direction, as shown in Fig. 11. These results, to-
gether with the fact that the samples used to produce
the data in Figs. 7 and 8, were cut with the primary
apparent orientation of the fibers either parallel or
transverse to the load direction and used randomly
for the assemblies provides a plausible explanation
for the relatively high scatter in the corresponding
LSS2 values.
The scatter observed in the size of the welded
area (ranging from 4% to 9.5% of the mean value
for transverse EDs) could be due to several factors,
including the design of the sonotrode, the design of
the EDs, and the mode of operation of the ultrasonic
machine itself.
Conclusions
An experimental study concerning the influence
of the geometry and configuration of the EDs on
the quality of the weld was carried out. Two as-
pects were investigated, namely, the orientation of
the EDs in relation to the direction of the load
and the size and distribution of multiple EDs,
respectively.
The main conclusions that can be drawn from the
study are as follows:
120
a. The coverage of the overlap area can be en-
hanced when using multiple EDs, provided
that their location and size do not hinder the
flow of resin.
b. Multiple EDs significantly reduce the distur-
bance of the fibers in the outermost layers of
the welded parts.
c. Transverse EDs provide less scatter in the
amount of welded area than parallel ED con-
figurations.
d. An excessive amount of resin at the welding
interface leads to a decrease in the strength of
the weld, even though there is a wide range of
resin volume for which welds with a satisfac-
tory strength level can be obtained.
Very few conclusions can be drawn about the effect
of the different configurations of EDs on the mechan-
ical properties of the welds owing to the generally
high scatter in the results. From the observations de-
rived from some additional tests, it is possible to
deduce that such a lack of consistency may be due
to the random usage of samples with 0◦ and 90◦
primary apparent orientations of the fibers for the
production of the welded samples.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Ten Cate Advanced Com-
posites, Airtech International, and INTA for their
support in this research work. They also thank D.
Stavrov, F. P. Bouwman, and B. J. Weteringe for their
valuable contributions to this work.
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