Abstract
The utilization of thermoplastic polyimide (TPI) films for aerospace structures has attracted considerable attention in recent decades due to excellent thermal stability, high glass transition temperature and good mechanical properties. As engineering materials, TPI films with limited product width require suitable welding with respect to insolubility and infusibility resulting from planar structure and wholly aromatic structures. This paper focuses on the development of a novel welding machine and investigation on ultimate strength of original and welded TPI films. The resistance welding machine is proposed with specific functions for overcoming the difficulties in welding TPI films. A series of experiments in combination of temperature and pressure are carried out to assess the quality of welded TPI films. Additional experiments on welded specimens from three existing welding machines are performed to compare and justify performance of resistance welding machine.The ultimate strength values of welded specimens are reasonable with a maximum reduction of only 2.73% in comparison with that of original specimens. It is revealed from experimental observations that one-parameter analysis (temperature or pressure) cannot draw suitable conclusions but that coupled two-parameter analysis could obtain suitable temperature range (290–295 °C) and pressure range (0–100 N). The confidence interval with the confidence coefficient of 0.95 is 71.2–72.8 MPa for the ultimate strength. The comparisons between five types demonstrate the feasibility of using this resistance welding machine to weld TPI films.
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