 Have you ever noticed that most things that we make, including aircraft, are made out of pieces that have to be joined together? There are many reasons why this is so, ranging from logistics to cost, but I would like to focus on the challenges it imposes the structural engineers. Joins are weak points in the structure, it's typically fail before the individual parts, making them critical in structural design. Why are joints to be cast spots? For example, for mechanical fasteners we need to drill a hole in our material, intentionally damaging it. The hole is critical and weakens the structure. Can we make joints without drilling holes? Yes of course we can, we can adhesively bond parts together. However, is this the solution? The adhesive can degrade over time, due to a number of factors, including the environment. On top of this, the joint itself is still the weakest link in the structure. Wouldn't it be great to fuse two parts together, bringing the strength to the material of the structure itself? This can be achieved with ultrasonic welding of advanced thermoplastic composite materials. This works as follows. High frequency vibrations are applied to the interface. These vibrations promote very efficient heat generation, melting the interface and fusing the two parts together at a very high speed, approximately 50 times faster than existing techniques. Right now, there are some limitations to this process. We can make perfect spot welds in less than half a second with exceptional properties. However, spot welding is not the optimum solution for many structures. In some cases, we would like to make a continuous welded seam. This precisely is the topic of my PhD research. I'm investigating the challenges of transforming the spot welding process to a continuous process in advanced thermoplastic composite materials. My concept for this continuous process is to utilize a horn that moves over the weld line, applying high frequency vibrations, fusing the two parts together. Realizing this concept requires overcoming a number of challenges, including process control, thermal degradation and part distortion. My research directly tackles these challenges within a larger research group, headed by Dr. Irene Fernandez-Velacus, focusing in on all aspects of ultrasonic welding. What does this all mean? In the future, we may be able to build advanced composite aircraft with this technology, where we do not have to worry about the inherent weaknesses of joints in ensuring the safe transportation of people and cargo around the world.