Plastic Welding

M. Fadlan Alamsyah
Satria Bintang P.
Toto Satrio W.
Michael Oloan
 Introduction

 Thermoplastics can easily be welded as can regain

their shape after heating.
 Most commonly welded plastics are PVC,
polyethylene, acrylics etc.
 They are welded by melting the surface to be joined &
allowing them to solidify as they solidify
 The methods for joining plastic components can be
divided into three major categories:
• Mechanical joining
• Adhesive bonding
• Welding
 Categories

 Mechanical joining:
 Mechanical fasteners can join two components quickly.
 Use of metallic or polymeric screws, snap-fit, press –fit.
 they do not provide leak tight joint.
 Adhesive bonding :
 An adhesive is placed between the parts it serves as the material that
joins the part & transmits load .
 provide good properties and fully sound joints, but they are difficult to
handle and slow to cure.
 Welding:
 In welding heat is to melt or soften the polymer at the interface to be
welded.
 Welding can be used to produce bonded joints with mechanical
properties that approach those of parent material.
 Classification of Plastic Welding

 Welding process are classified by the heating method that is used.

 Two general methods are:
 External heating

 Internal heating

 External heating:
 It rely on convection & conduction to heat the weld surface.

 Hot gas, extrusion, implant resistance welding, implant induction.

 Internal heating:
 It rely on conversion of mechanical energy into heat through surface friction.

 Further divided into internal mechanical, Internal electromagnetic heating

 Ultrasonic , friction , laser.

Hot plate welding:
 This process applies heat from a hot plate that
is placed between the plastic surfaces to be
bonded. The surfaces are pressed and fused
together to form a strong joint. Hot plates are
made from aluminum alloys.
Contd…….
 Applications of hot plate welding:
 Polyethylene (PE) pipe welding for gas line installations.
 Fuel tank assemblies for the automotive industries.
 This process utilizes the heat of
hot gas, usually air that has been
heated by electric heating
elements in the welding gun.
 This is similar to oxy-acetylene
welding of metals. The only
difference is that the open flame
of oxy-acetylene welding is
replaced by a stream of hot gas.
 Compressed air, nitrogen,
hydrogen, oxygen or carbon
dioxide is heated by an electric
coil as it passes through a
welding gun
 Applications of hot gas welding:
 It is used to fabricate pipelines, pond liners, and a wide variety
of vessels.
 Used to join broken plastics easily.

 Advantages :
 Easy to use.

 Thermoplastics can be welded easily.

 Limitations:
 Slow manual process cannot be used in mass production.
 This method uses mechanical vibrations to form the joint. The
vibrations are of high frequency.

 The parts to be assembled are held together under pressure between the
oscillating horn and an immobile anvil and are subjected to ultrasonic
vibrations of frequency 20 to 40 KHz at right angles to the contact area.
 Alternating high frequency stresses generate heat at joint interface to
produce a good quality weld.

 ultrasonic welding is divided into two major groups:

 Near -field
 Far –field
 Near-field :
 The distance between the horn and the weld interface less than 6mm.
 Far-field:
 The distance between the horn and the weld interface is greater than
6mm.
Contd……
 Advantages:
 Used in mass production because the welding time are relatively short.

 Applicable for both amorphous and semi crystalline thermoplastics.

 Used to bond dissimilar materials.

 Limitations:
 Horn size is limited to design constraints.

 The process and tools must be adapted for the materials to be welded.

 Applications :
 Food packaging, computer components.