Manufacturing of a 60 x 60 cm 2

Gadolinium cathode with

ultrasonic welding
Patrik Thuiner
 http://textlnfo.wordpress.com/2013/04/11/ultrasonic-technology-in-nonwoven-and-textile-industry/
Ultrasonic welding
Ultrasonic generator
• Principle
• Ultrasonic acoustic vibrations + pressure
• Molecules of one material diffuse into other
material

Ultrasonic stack
• Advantages
• Joining of dissimilar materials
Sonotrode
• Low thermal impact on material
• Precise and clean welds
• Reproducible weld quality

Nest
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 http://textlnfo.wordpress.com/2013/04/11/ultrasonic-technology-in-nonwoven-and-textile-industry/
Ultrasonic welding
Ultrasonic generator
• Parts are placed onto the nest
• Mechanical vibration is applied to the parts to be
welded by sonotrode
• Ultrasonic generator delivers high power AC signal

Ultrasonic stack
with frequency matching resonance frequency of
the ultrasonic stack
• Electrical signal converted into mechanical Sonotrode
vibration by converter
• Amplitude of the vibration modified by booster
• All three elements of the stack resonate at exactly
the same ultrasonic frequency
Nest
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Ultrasonic welding Sonotrode

http://textlnfo.wordpress.com/2013/04/11/ultrasonic-technology-in-nonwoven-and-textile-industry/
• Point or area welding
• Different shapes and sizes of horn and anvil
• Can be designed for our purposes, e.g. 0.5 x 10 cm2
• Continuous welding Nest
• Sample moved between rotating sonotrode and anvil
Sonotrode
• Material needs to be quite robust
• Not applicable to our case!

Nest

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Ultrasonic welding

Surfaces interlock
Materials melt and flow together

Surface interlocks break

Materials build lubricating film

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Branson Ultrasonics
• R&D laboratory in Dietzenbach, D
• Welding tests
• Horn and anvil design
• Quality assurance
• (Possibly full assembly)
• Smaller laboratory in Geneva, CH
• Checking if tests can be conducted there

• Tests might require one all-day visit!

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Branson Ultrasonics
• R&D laboratory in Dietzenbach, D
• Welding tests
• Horn and anvil design
• Quality assurance
• (Possibly full assembly)
• Smaller laboratory in Geneva, CH
• Small test setup available

• We spent half a day in Carouge!

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Samples
• Gadolinium sheets
• 25x25mm² area each
• 10 µm, 25 µm, and 50 µm thick
• Aluminium sheets
• 1 mm thick
• Provided by Branson
• Titanium sheets won’t work

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Setup
• Branson Ultraweld L20
• Welding geometries
• different combinations of
sonotrode and anvil
• Frequency
• 20 kHz only
• Amplitudes
• different amplitudes possible
• we used e.g. 25 µm, 18 µm

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Different combinations of sonotrode & anvil

Sonotrode Sonotrode

Anvil Anvil

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Gd-Al-Al-Gd sandwich (to save some time...)

Sonotrode
Anvil

Sample

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Gd-Al-Al-Gd sandwich (to save some time...)

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Gd-Al-Al-Gd sandwich (to save some time...)
Gd-Al with 10 µm worked on top side of sample

Gd-Al
top

Gd-Gd
top

bottom

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Gd-Al samples
• 10 µm Gd in Al
sandwich worked
• 10 µm Gd on Al
didn’t work
• 25 µm Gd on Al with
different sonotrode
and anvil didn’t work
• Sonotrode punched
through samples!

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Summary
(fortunately not the end of the story…)
• Gd on Al works
• with all sheets 25 µm Gd
• for 20 kHz systems
• with some of the sonotrodes and anvils available
• Gd on Al doesn’t work
• with some of the sonotrodes and anvils available
• Gd on Gd doesn’t work
• for 20 kHz systems
• with the sonotrodes and anvils available

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Branson Ultrasonics
• R&D laboratory in Dietzenbach, D
• Welding tests
• Horn and anvil design
• Quality assurance
• (Possibly full assembly)
• Smaller laboratory in Geneva, CH
• Small test setup available

• We spent half a day in Carouge!

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Branson Ultrasonidos
• R&D laboratory in Barcelona, E
• Specialised in metal welding
• Machines with 20 kHz and 40 kHz
• Point, area and continuous welding
• Large stock of different sonotrodes and anvils

• Planned stay for one or two days in end of June!

• Tests still for free, but once it’s working…

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Emerson a.s.
• … we need to talk with these ones about
our budget.

• Production and automation facilities in

Nové Mesto nad Váhom, SK
• Design and production of tooling for
our specific needs!
• Shape and size
• Surface
• Sonotrode length
• …

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Acknowledgments
A huge thank you to José Rodrigues and Franck Didierjean of
Branson Ultrasonics for the discussions and their support!

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