2. Description of the Prior Art An evaluation of the performance of welded butt joints has been accomplished by use of standard tensile specimens (ISO or ASTM), rectangular plaques and T-shape elements (ultrasonic welding specimens, American Welding Society G1. 2). After welding, the effectiveness of the joints is tested using standard test practices. The use of standard --tensile-specimens (ISO-orSTM),-rectangular---plaques--and_T-shape-elements has advantages, among which are the availability of injection-molded plaques, and convenient configuration and size of test specimens for easy machining operations for the specimen preparations. A problem encountered with use of standard tensile specimens (ISO or ASTM), rectangular plaques and T-shape elements is the limitation that these specimens may only be successfully welded using specially prepared, small welding machines. Only one such small size linear vibration welding machine is available commercially at this time.

Such a machine, designated Model M-102, is manufactured by Branson Ultrsonic, Germany. When a company is equipped with a mid or large welding machine for welding midsize and large parts, such as lawn mower housings and air intake manifolds, it is very hard to evaluate tensile properties of the joints following the ASTM or ISO procedures. In such circumstances, these specimens are too small for the machine size, and the clamp pressure will be too high. Mechanical performance of thus-welded specimens will often not represent true weld strength property of the material being evaluated.

It would be desirable to provide a universal weld test system which would overcome the above mentioned shortcomings.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention provides a multi-purpose universal weld test system that incorporates an article and method for evaluating the performance of welded joints with the influence of design, processing conditions such as welding, molding and the like, and material composition. Advantageously, the invention can be used to perform and evaluate linear vibration, orbital vibration, hot plate, infrared, hot gas, hot gas extrusion welding process, at a variety of bead thicknesses. In practice, two polygon shaped articles having walls of different thicknesses are mated and welded together. Specimens are then cut from this composite part for testing.

More specifically, the invention provides an article for evaluating the performance of welded butt joints and optimizing the design, processing conditions and material composition thereof, comprising: a base plate having a top face and a bottom face; a first polygon shaped welding edge; a second polygon shaped welding edge (hereinafter referred to as"edge"); and a plurality of sets of two parallel walls, each set of walls being provided with a top edge and bottom edge, the top edge and the bottom edge having a predetermined thickness, each wall of a set being oppositely positioned perpendicular to and around the base plate, thereby forming a deep bowl on the top face and a shallow bowl on the bottom face; whereby the top edges form the first polygon shaped edge, and the bottom edges form the second polygon shaped edge.

Preferably, the set of walls has a unique thickness for the top and bottom edges. The plurality of sets of two parallel walls forms an octagon comprised of thermoplastic material.

Optionally, the article further comprises a plurality of radial ribs that provide and maintain flexural support for the walls of the deep bowl during welding operations.

The invention further provides a method for evaluating the strength and life, i. e. creep and fatigue, of welded butt joints, comprising the steps of : selecting a material to be used in forming the butt joints ; forming from the material, a first article and a second article, each of the first and second articles having a function as in the article defined above; selecting a first polygon shaped edge of the first article; selecting a first polygon shaped edge of the second article; selecting a set of walls of the first article; selecting a set of walls of the second article; connecting the selected polygon shaped edges and aligning the selected set of walls to mate the first article and the second article together; placing the

mated first and second article onto a welding machine; welding the first article to the second article to form a composite part; cutting specimens from the welded selected set of walls of the composite part; and testing the specimens.

The invention represents a significant improvement over previous welding and test systems because it makes possible the evaluation of butt joints for midsize and large parts fabricated in large welding machines. Advantageously, the size and configuration of the article tested is more closely matched with parameters of articles employed in actual manufacturing situations from small to large.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention will be more fully understood and further advantages will become apparent when reference is had to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the invention and the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numeral denote similar elements throughout the several views and in which: Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the deep bowl side of the article of the invention; Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the shallow bowl side of the article of the invention; Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a deep bowl to deep bowl alignment of two articles of the invention; Fig. 4 is a perspective view of two alternative mating configurations; and Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the composite part and specimen cutouts.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The invention provides a method for design, process and material optimization, and evaluating the performance of welded butt joints and an article especially suited for use with the method. In general, the invention can be used to perform and evaluate linear vibration, orbital vibration, hot plate, infrared, hot gas, hot gas extrusion welding at a variety of bead thicknesses. During practice of the invention, two polygon shaped articles having walls of different thicknesses are mated and welded together. Specimens are then cut from this composite part for testing.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings, there is shown an article 10 for evaluating the performance of welded butt joints. Generally stated, article 10 comprises: a base plate 12 having a top face 14 and a bottom face 16; a first polygon shaped edge 18; a second polygon shaped edge 20; and a plurality of sets of two parallel walls 22, each set of walls being provided with a top edge 24 and bottom edge 26. The top edge 24 and the bottom edge 26 have a predetermined thickness. Each wall of a set is oppositely positioned perpendicular to and around base plate 12, thereby forming a deep bowl 30 on top face 14, and a shallow bowl 32 on bottom face 16. With this arrangement, the top edges form the first polygon shaped edge 18, and the bottom edges form the second polygon shaped edge 20.

The two walls of each set are placed parallel and opposite to each other across base plate 12. Deep bowl 30 is formed on top face 14 of base plate 12, while shallow bowl 32 is formed on bottom face 16 of base plate 12. First polygon shaped edge 18 forms the lip around deep bowl 30, while second polygon shaped edge 20 forms the lip around shallow bowl 32.

Preferably, each set of walls has a unique thickness for top edge 24 and bottom edge 26. As a further preference, there are four sets of two parallel walls, yielding an octagonal form. The thickness of the top edge and bottom edge can be of any selected size. For the octagonal shape, in one embodiment, the four sets of walls have edge thickness values of 2.5 mm, 4.0 mm, 5. 0 mm, and 6 mm. In one embodiment, the length of an edge is chosen to result in a weld area of approximately 3,600 mm2.

Optionally, article 10 further comprises a plurality of radial ribs 34, for providing and maintaining flexural support for the walls of deep bowl 30. The composition of the material from which the article is formed, may be of any weldable material. Article 10 is particularly adapted to be formed of a thermoplastic material such as nylon.

Article 34 may be made or designed to form constant height radial ribs, which can also be used for the welding study, on the influence of the fiber orientation effects for fiber filled materials.

In practice, two articles, shown in Figure 3 as 1 Oa and 1 Ob, are welded together into composite part 11. A set of walls 42 is selected on each article having the desired edge thickness to be tested. Thereafter, the desired configuration is selected. Fig. 3 shows a deep

bowl to deep bowl configuration. Alternate configurations include shallow bowl to shallow bowl, shown as Fig. 4a, or deep to shallow bowl, shown in Fig. 4b. In the example shown by Fig. 3, first polygon shaped edge 18a of first article lOa is mated to first polygon edge 18b of second article l Ob. As shown by Fig. 5, specimens 36 which encompass welded butt joints 38 are cut from the composite part 11.

The two articles lOa and lOb are positioned as to the selected configuration, and the selected edge thicknesses are aligned. The mated articles are placed on a welding machine.

After welding, specimens 36 are cut from composite part 11 and undergo standard performance testing.

The invention further provides a method for evaluating the strength of vibration welded butt joints, comprising the steps of : selecting a material to be used in forming the butt joints 38 ; forming from the material a first article 1 Oa and second article 1 Ob ; selecting a first polygon shaped edge 18a of first article 10a ; selecting a first polygon shaped edge 18b of second article lOb ; selecting a set of walls 42a from first article 10a ; selecting a set of walls 42b from second article lOb ; connecting the selected polygon shaped edges 18a and 18b and aligning selected set of walls 42a and 42b to mate first article lOa and the second article lOb together; selecting an orientation of the selected set of walls with respect to the vibration movement direction of the welding machine; placing the mated first and second article onto a welding machine at the selected orientation; welding first article lOa to second article lOb to form a composite part 11 ; cutting specimens 36 from the welded selected set of walls of the composite part 11; and testing the specimens. In this manner, the selected set of walls is selected from a plurality of mating joint combinations allowed by the polygon. In addition, a plurality of welded butt joints at a plurality of angles with respect to the vibration movement are produced.

In an alternative embodiment of the invention, the foregoing method is modified by mating shallow bowl to shallow bowl instead of deep bowl to deep bowl. In a further embodiment, the foregoing method is modified by mating deep bowl to shallow bowl instead of deep bowl to deep bowl.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that a plurality of mating joint thickness combinations can be derived by rotating the two polygon bodies at varying angles with respect to each other, thereby producing additional multiples of mating joint

thicknesses. A further feature of the method and article herein described provides means for evaluating vibration weld strength as a function of orientation with respect to the welding movement direction.

In a further embodiment, the composite part described is hot welded. In this embodiment, the method for evaluating the strength of vibration welded joints does not require the step of : selecting an orientation of the selected set of walls with respect to the vibration movement direction of the welding machine. Nor does the method require the step of placing the mated first and second article onto a welding machine at the selected orientation. The mated first and second article may be placed on the welding machine without attention to orientation since, unlike vibration welding, orientation of a joint appointed for hot welding is not critical.

Having thus described the invention in rather full detail, it will be understood that such detail need not be strictly adhered to but that various changes and modifications may suggest themselves to one skilled in the art, all falling within the scope of the present invention as defined by the subjoined claims.