On the Use of Contactless Vibration to Improve the Welding Quality

: This paper investigates the use of contactless power ultrasonic excitation to decrease the electrical impedance of the weld in laser welding. The literature extensively documents the impact of employing contact power ultrasonic excitation on the microstructure morphology and refinement of grain in the weld. This study involves characterising an industrial High Power Ultrasound Transducer (HPUT) by determining the optimal distance and angle for contactless excitation of the fusion zone in the weld, aiming to achieve the maximum amplitude. Subsequently, the transducer is integrated into the laser welding system, resulting in the creation of an ultra-sonic-assisted welding system. To find the improvement due to the contactless vibration assistance, the welding area was characterised by an impedance ohmmeter device. The results indicate an approximately 6 % improvement in the welding quality in terms of the impedance value, an important parameter for battery pack welding. In response to the issue of overheating in the industrial transducer during prolonged welding operations, an alternative transducer was proposed to overcome this challenge. Further investigations are carried out by the alternative transducer to find the effect of different wave types, namely, shear and compressional waves, on the welding quality. The contact vibration can excite the plate approximately 50 times higher in acceleration amplitude than contactless excitation. Nevertheless, enhancements of 10% and 6% are observed in the impedance value when utilising compressional and shear waves, respectively, as compared to the results obtained with contactless vibration.