I hope the year has started off well for you guys!
What resin would be best for printing ultrasonic welding anvils?
FYI: The anvil is the holding fixture that evenly copies the lower geometry of the part to be welded, and must withstand the welding frequency for a few seconds (20khz or 40khz) and a little pressure.
I would prefer an alternative to T2000, the one I have, because of its tendency to deform over time and the low quality of the support side (hanging bridge effect).
I was thinking of R4000 or R10000 but I have no experience with either, nor do I know if they will hold up to the process.
Has someone here done any tests or is aware of a case study in this matter?
Any advise highly appreciated!
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Are you using the anvil to just locate and hold the plastic part or does the anvil have some geometry/textures that aid in the ultrasonic bond?
Any pictures showing the wear?
Thanks for your reply!
There is no wear as I have never printed one up to now.
I was just recollecting opinions to chose which material to test, as a wrong choice is a big expense between resin and tank…)
The anvil just positions and supports the plastic part, it’s never in direct contact with the sonotrode.
So there’s at least 2.5mm plastic absorbing the vibrations
The current anvils are milled from PA6 blocks, but I’m not thinking of T1500 (I use this a lot for other prototypes) since I SUPPOSE R4000 is much more rigid and therefore flatter on the support side. I’m also supposing it has less creep. T1500 deforms a lot over time with stress
Ok, makes sense. We rarely use our form3 or sla for functional prints but more for fit/feel/size.
We have played around with the more expensive specialty materials seem to just fall back onto draft, clear and black. We tend to use our fuse with nylon for functional part testing/production as nylon is more durable.
I’ve been wanting to experiment with having some of our sls printed nylon parts tested with an ultrasonic welder as I feel it is the next step in production methods for us to avoid adhesives or fasteners.
It may make sense for you in belgium to have some parts sent to someone with a sls fuse or even mjf machine to test if 3d printed nylon would make more sense for you then cnc machining them. likely depends on the part complexity and turnaround time.
A-ha… nice.
The process so far with is ultrasound staking (so: making a rivet from a plastic protrusion) as opposed to welding which is joining to plastic parts with the melting of an energy director feature.
I don’t know which one you wanted to test with your fuse, but I have tested staking MJF PA12 prototypes and it doesn’t work. The pins just “explode” 
instead of forming a melted blob
When I test I’ll post some pictures here.
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