Research Article

Experimental and theoretical investigations on temperature distribution at the joint interface for copper joints using ultrasonic welding

Associate Professor, Department of Production Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore 641004, India

^* e-mail: elango_surya@yahoo.co.in

Received: 12 August 2014
Accepted: 4 October 2014

Abstract

Ultrasonic welding is a solid-state joining process that produces joints by the application of high frequency vibratory energy in the work pieces held together under pressure without melting. Copper and its alloys are extensively used in electrical and electronic industry because of its excellent electrical and thermal properties. This paper mainly focused on temperature distribution and the influence of process parameters at the joint interface while joining copper sheets using ultrasonic welding process. Experiments are carried out using Cu sheets (0.2 mm and 0.3 mm thickness) and the interface temperature is measured using Data Acquisition (DAQ) System (thermocouple) and thermal imager. Numerical and finite element based model for temperature distribution at the interface are developed and solved the same using Finite Difference Method (FDM) and Finite Element Analysis (FEA). The results obtained from FDM and FEA model shows similar trend with experimental results and are found to be in good agreement.