3D Printing Innovations to Help Traditional Manufacturing: SonicLayer® X̅ When You Need Extra Power!

As Fabrisonic approaches its 10-year anniversary, I am reflecting on the variety of accomplishments that Fabrisonic has achieved with ultrasonic additive manufacturing (UAM).  UAM is a 3D metal printing technique that uses sound instead of heat to join metal. 

In our short ten years:

• Commercialized four standard 3D printing machines, as well as numerous custom systems

• Over 35,000 3D printed parts including components for satellites, nuclear reactors, and aerospace applications

• Innovations such as the embedding sensors in the Smart Build Plate to help with in situ process monitoring of powder bed fusion equipment

• Proven out numerous novel material combinations based on UAM’s solid-state nature combining different metal alloys, metal matrix composites, even amorphous metals

• Recent Government contracts such as America Makes project to help develop MMPDS design allowables for 6061 and a NASA SBIR to develop UAM for use in orbit

Today we turn the page with a new product launch outside of the world of 3D printing.  Don’t worry, we are still religious proponents of 3D printing even as we expand to other large growing markets.  We will continue to serve our UAM customers and expand UAM research, development, and capabilities.

However, as we’ve grown, we have found that there is tremendous demand not only for UAM but for high-powered ultrasonic welding in general. So today, we launch the SonicLayer® X̅ Seam Welder.  This seam welder is faster, has wider welds, and the ability to join more layers in a single pass than any existing seam welder on the market.  Leveraging years of experience in 3D printing, our seam welder simply does more. 

The X̅ or X-bar is the seam welder under the Fabrisonic SonicLayer® brand.  The seam welder’s name comes from the Roman numeral for 10,000 as our high-powered seam welding has 10,000 watts of power.   

As a seam welder, the SonicLayer® X̅ is a technology that can be used in many applications.  This includes continuous tube and seam, solar panels, battery anode/cathode tabbing, and connectors.  By repurposing the patented high-powered ultrasonic devices developed for UAM, Fabrisonic can provide a seam welder with twice the power of current market seam welders. 

There are numerous benefits:

Faster	Up to 250 inches per minute
Thicker	Up to 0.040 inch (1mm)
More Materials	Capable of Aluminum, Copper, Stainless, Nickel alloys, and even Metal Matrix Composites
Down Force	Up to 2,300 pounds (10,000N)
Width	Up to 1.063 inch (27 mm)
Efficient	Join more layers in one pass

The SonicLayer®X̅seam welder has successfully manufactured a variety of electrical grade foils for interconnects, batteries, and flexible shunts as well as welding dissimilar metal combinations such as Cu/Ag, Cu/Al, Al/Fe.   In addition to high-speed production of electrical systems, high-power seam welders can be used for metal foil packaging, sheet metal welding, cladding, and selective reinforcement. The SonicLayer® X̅seam welder can be used in any application needing to join metal foils or sheets together. Use this technology to join multi-material combinations of a vast array of metals and metal matrix composites. 

Is it any wonder our tagline for this product is X-Bar: When You Need Extra Power!

Do you have a project that needs more powerful welding? Call (614) 688-5197 or visit https://www.soniclayerx.com/