AUTOMATED, ENERGY EFFICIENT ULTRASONIC WELDER

• Main Authors: PATRIKIOS, MICHAEL, MARKUS, A., JAMES
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French
• Published: 25.09.1997
• Edition: 6
• Subjects: ACOUSTICS; ACOUSTICS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; CLADDING OR PLATING BY SOLDERING OR WELDING; CUTTING BY APPLYING HEAT LOCALLY, e.g. FLAME CUTTING; FOR PERFORMING MECHANICAL WORK IN GENERAL; GENERATING OR TRANSMITTING MECHANICAL VIBRATIONS IN GENERAL; MACHINE TOOLS; METAL-WORKING NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; METHODS OR APPARATUS FOR GENERATING OR TRANSMITTING MECHANICALVIBRATIONS OF INFRASONIC, SONIC, OR ULTRASONIC FREQUENCY; METHODS OR DEVICES FOR PROTECTING AGAINST, OR FOR DAMPING,NOISE OR OTHER ACOUSTIC WAVES IN GENERAL; MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; SOLDERING OR UNSOLDERING; SOUND-PRODUCING DEVICES; TRANSPORTING; WELDING; WORKING BY LASER BEAM

An ultrasonic welder is provided which automatically recognizes and reliably welds varying weld zone sizes of material. The welder comprises a base (22), a transducer (22), a tip (62), an anvil (26, 26'), a gathering tool (74), and an actuator (30) for moving both the anvil and gathering tool to define a weld zone (32). An encoder (34) reads movement of the actuator and a microprocessor determines weld zone size to control the transducer for maximizing weld efficiency. Preferably, a horn (24) is mounted between the transducer and tip and the horn is dynamically mounted along an axis of the tranducer to transmit the maximum amount of ultrasonic energy to the weld. In another aspect, the invention relates to a method of operating an ultrasonic welder to automatically recognize and reliably weld varying weld zone sizes.