Abstract: Thermoplastic welding is an emerging technology targeted at significantly reducing the manufacturing cost of aerospace structure by eliminating fasteners and the touch labor associated with fasteners to prepare, install, and inspect the assemblies. Quality welds are highly dependent upon achieving appropriate temperatures everywhere along the bond line. The present invention is a system that evaluates the quality of the welds involving inputting an EM pulse to the embedded susceptor and listening to the acoustic response that the pulse generates to determine weld quality from the sound.

Abstract: Thermoplastic welding is an emerging technology targeted at significantly reducing the manufacturing cost of aerospace structure by eliminating fasteners and the touch labor associated with fasteners to prepare, install, and inspect the assemblies. Quality welds are highly dependent upon achieving appropriate temperatures everywhere along the bond line. The present invention is a system that evaluates the quality of the welds involving inputting an EM pulse to the embedded susceptor and listening to the acoustic response that the pulse generates to determine weld quality from the sound.

Abstract: A static coil induction welding apparatus and method for induction welding thermoplastic composite structures. The apparatus includes a plurality of independent coil segments disposed adjacent one another in side-by-side fashion to form a coil pack. A plurality of such coil packs are disposed in side-by-side fashion to form a coil assembly which covers the entire area of the weld zone. An AC power supply associated with each coil pack applies an AC signal through a switching network to electrically energize its associated coil segments such that the AC signals are in predetermined phase relationships relative to one another, thus generating a plurality of eddy current loops in a susceptor placed between the components being welded. The switching network alternately switches the coil segments such that the AC signals applied to the coil segments are shifted back and forth between adjacently disposed coil segments repeatedly approximately every 0.5 seconds.

Abstract: A process and apparatus for electromagnetically forming the end of an electrically conductive 2024 aluminum tube onto an end fitting includes energizing a main coil around a field concentrator movable into an opening in the main coil. The field concentrator has a wide circumferential flange that narrows down to an inner radial web having an axial channel through the center. The field concentrator is split horizontally into two halves, so the top half can be removed for insertion of the tube end and the end fitting. The end fitting has a tubular body that fits snugly into the end of the tube. A pair of carriages mounted on rails clamp the tube, and a gripper holds the end fitting in the proper position in the tube end. The carriages carry the field concentrator, and the tube with its end fitting positioned in the center of the field concentrator web, into the coil where a magnetic field generated by the coil and concentrated by the field concentrator forms the end of the tube onto the end fitting.

Abstract: Thermoplastic welding is an emerging technology targeted at significantly reducing the manufacturing cost of aerospace structure by eliminating fasteners and the touch labor associated with fasteners to prepare, install, and inspect the assemblies. Quality welds are highly dependent upon achieving appropriate temperatures everywhere along the bond line. The present invention is a system that evaluates the quality of the welds involving inputting an EM pulse to the embedded susceptor and listening to the acoustic response that the pulse generates to determine weld quality from the sound.

Abstract: An electromagnetic coil configuration used for swaging small tubing. The coil consists of a coaxial arrangement of an inner helical coil and an outer coil shaped as a hollow cylinder with one end open and the other end closed and connected by direct electrical contact to one end of the inner coil.