Vibration welding of a unidirectional continuous glass fiber reinforced polypropylene GMT

This paper presents experimental results of vibration welding of a continuous fiber GMT composite of E-glass glass fiber reinforced polypropylene. Vibration welding parameters investigated were vibration time, clamping pressure and vibration amplitude. The effects of these parameters on penetration and lap shear strength of the composite were determined. It was shown that clamping pressure and vibration time should be properly selected to optimize the lap shear strength. Temperature measurements made during vibration welding showed the importance of these two parameters on the interface temperature required for proper vibration welding.