Evaluation of monitoring approaches for the ultrasonic crimping process of tubular cable lugs

The contacting process is one of the most important process steps in the production of electrical drives. The ultrasonic crimping process, developed at the institute FAPS is an innovative and energy-efficient contacting process which is not yet ready for serial production. Therefore, one objective of the research project E|ALUKONT is the further optimization of this process and the introduction of process monitoring approaches. Both, the in-line-capable monitoring of process temperature as well as an analysis of process-induced oscillations are considered. In addition, process data recorded by the plant, such as the coupled welding power or welding energy, are examined for their traceability. Through series of experiments, the possible monitoring approaches are evaluated for their applicability in the ultrasonic crimping process. A reference for evaluating the achieved connection quality is the determination of the transition resistance between the cable lug and the copper wires as well as the maximum pull-out force.