Vibratory welding apparatus

Claim 1

A vibratory welding apparatus comprising: a source of vibratory energy having a workpiece engaging tip; a nesting structure adapted to receive a workpiece and support it to cause a location to be welded to be in correlated position relative to said tip; movable means coupled to said nesting structure for causing said workpiece to undergo reciprocating motion to provide alternatingly forced engagement between said tip and workpiece and causing the workpiece to be withdrawn from said tip; further means coupled to said nesting structure for rotationally indexing the workpiece supported on said structure in stepped fashion to expose sequentially different circumferentially spaced locations of the workpiece to said tip; control means coupled to said source of vibratory energy, said movable means and to said further means for causing the workpiece to undergo said reciprocating motion, for rotationally indexing the workpiece when the workpiece is withdrawn from said tip and for actuating said source when said tip is in forced engagement with the workpiece, and said control means including an energy control means for operating said source in a manner to provide substantially equal amounts of vibratory energy during each actuation of said source, and including also a counting means for inhibiting operation of said movable means and of said further means when a predetermined quantity of said circumferentially spaced locations have been exposed to vibratory energy from said tip.