Surface-conformed approach for mechanical property analysis using ultrasonic welding of dissimilar metals

In this paper, dissimilar aluminum (Al) and copper (Cu) metals were joined together using ultrasonic metal welding (USMW), a solid-state welding technology. From the perspective of increasing the base metal welding contact area, the Cu/Al mating surface was innovatively prepared and ultrasonically welded. A comprehensive analysis was carried out on the forming quality, welding process temperature, interface structure, and mechanical properties of the welded joint. Defect-free and squeezed welds were successfully achieved by machining novel patterns especially C4-2. The results indicated that the reference joint can withstand higher loads, but its failure mode is very unstable. Failure may occur at welded interface and on the aluminum plate which is not good for actual production applications. Welded strength of reference joint was 4493 N, and the welded strength of C4-2 joint was 3691 N. However, microscopic analysis discovered that the welded joint internal morphology in C4-2 was more stable and hardest. C4-2 joint has successfully achieved higher tensile strength and stability under failure displacement of 38% which is higher than C4-1 joint. All welded joint failures occurred on aluminum plate, indicating that the joint strength is higher than that of bottom plate. This is attributed to unique structural design of chiseled joint and lesser thickness. SEM–EDS results investigated that the C4-2 joint can transfer more energy to area under welding head which provides welded joint with robust diffusion capacity. The transition layer has a higher thickness while the energy transferred to area away from welding head was smaller. Thickness of transition layer is significantly reduced and reference joint has similar diffusion characteristics. Conversely, the thickness of the transition layer at the corresponding position is smaller than that of pattern morphology. This is due to overall smaller thickness of the pattern joint which is more conducive to the transfer of wel