The effect of electro-discharge machined sonotrode topology oninterlaminar bonding in ultrasonic consolidation

摘要

Ultrasonic Consolidation (UC) is a solid state additive manufacturing process which fabricates three-dimensional objects by ultrasonically joining metal foils together, layer-by-layer, to form a solid part. This study investigates the effect of sonotrode surface texture on the bond strength, interlaminar microstructure and sample surface texture of parts fabricated by UC. White light interferometry was used to characterize the surface of two sonotrodes, textured by Electro-Discharge Machining (EDM). Aluminum 3003-H18 UC samples were fabricated using both sonotrodes under identical processing conditions. The surface texture of the UC samples produced is a reduced amplitude version of the parent sonotrodes texture. Peel testing was used to evaluate the bond strength and failure mode of the samples. The interlaminar microstructure of the parts was examined and linear weld density measured. The rougher sonotrode samples exhibited higher weld strength and brittle failure modes compared to the less rough sonotrode samples which demonstrated ductile failure and lower weld strength. This paper examines the influence of sonotrode texture on interlaminar bonding in UC and how this could be controlled and exploited to optimize bonding in UC.