Vibration Welding Guide

Vibration welding, also known as ultrasonic welding is a welding process used in advance technology industries to achieve a weld between two metal materials. The ultrasonic welding process is interesting to understand for those that have never watched or known of the process before.

Vibration (ultrasonic) welding is not a new welding process; in fact it was first designed back in 1960 by an American company called Sonobond Ultrasonics who developed the process. Since it was developed this welding process has not changed much although subtle improvements have occurred with the advances of technology.

What is it?

Vibration (Ultrasonic) welding is a process where two pieces of metal material are held close together and vibrations are used to literally let the two materials merge together forming a weld. In this kind of welding process there are no welding torches, welding wire or manual interaction with the welder carrying out the work.

How does it work?

Two pieces of material are pressed together extremely tightly then very high frequency ultra sonic acoustic vibrations are applied to the two materials. These vibrations will induce heat between the two materials as they are pressed together which then allows them to heat up and merge causing them to weld together.

What metallic materials can use vibration welding?

Sheet gauge steel and stainless steel along with Aluminum are great metal materials that can be used. Interestingly Aluminum is a material that is generally hard to weld and requires a TIG welder because of the high level of heat required because of Aluminums high thermal conductivity but with ultrasonic welding, Aluminum works well because it's a softer metal material.

What industries use it?

Many industries use ultrasonic welding but the two most well known users of this process is the Aerospace and Automotive industries. The reason why the Aerospace and Automotive industries use the vibration welding process is because of the low cost and high quality of the weld, this is most evident in the Aerospace industry.

In the Aerospace industry a lot of parts are made from Aluminum because it's a soft alloy that has strong tensile strength and can withstand high temperatures, this means that it is a great welding option for two reasons.

Firstly the Aluminum can be welded effectively using ultrasonic (vibration) welding, secondly vibration welding carries less risk than manual TIG welding where stresses can form through slag. Every Aerospace company tries to ensure that their aircraft are produced to the highest quality as they would not want an aircraft with imperfections that could break when the aircraft undergoes a lot of stress and strain in flight.