STUDY OF ULTRASONIC WELDING OF HDPE-BASED NANOCLAY COMPOSITES

摘要

Clay-based nanocomposites have high modulus, high specific strength, and low permeability. They have become popular in many industries because these material properties can be achieved by the addition of small volume fractions of inexpensive clay particles. Ultrasonic welding of four high density polyethylene nanocomposites with 0 wt%, 3 wt%, 6 wt% and 9 wt% nanoclay was investigated. The effects of weld force, amplitude of vibration, and weld time for energy director joints or weld collapse for shear joints on weld strength were evaluated. Three parameter, three level design of experiments (DOE) were utilized to find near-optimum welding parameters. For the best welding conditions for both energy director and shear joints, increasing the nanoclay content resulted in significantly decreasing weld strength. For energy director joints the decrease in strength with increasing nanoclay content was greater than for the shear joints.