JOINING AND ASSEMBLY | INNOVATION
Complex connection: what’s new in joining technologies
A range of joining technologies are available to meet a variety of assembly requirements for plastic components in many key industries. Mark Holmes looks at some recent developments
Joining and assembling semi-finished plastic materials is a well-established technique that is an invaluable tool for many applications, particularly in the automotive, electronics and medical sectors. Plastic materials can be joined using a number of different technologies including laser, spin and infrared welding, as well as hot plate, vibration and ultrasonic welding. While the techniques differ, all generate heat to melt the plastic and fuse pieces together.
Laser welding is now instrumental in the development of many high quality and innovative devices for the automotive, electronics and medical sectors, as well as many other industries. The technique can deliver reliable, dust-free, hygienic joining of plastic parts resulting in a joint as strong as the material itself. German company LPKF has been developing laser welding technology for plastics for more than 20 years. In laser transmission welding, two components are welded together. LPKF explains that they differ slightly in their material properties: one of the parts is transparent to the laser wave- length used and the other absorbs the laser energy. The heat that arises locally in the absorbing part during the process is transferred through a slight mechanical pressure applied to the second part, which results in both parts melting at the weld
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seam – and a reliable joint with the same strength as the parent material. Many different plastics with various geometries can be welded in this way. LPKF says that with the optimised systems it has developed the most diverse of components – large or small, with wide or narrow weld seams, exhibit- ing simple or complex geometries – can now be joined. There is also now extensive process automation. As a result, welded products can now even meet the exacting requirements of the automotive and medical technology industries. “There are now over 1,200 LPKF systems for laser plastic welding in use on all continents of the world and more than 3,000 different processes are carried out with these systems,” says Simon Reiser, Managing Director of LPKF. “In the automotive industry, nearly every OEM supplier is using LPKF systems. The still-growing plastics market is changing and is still searching for solutions, for example, for the further treatment of recycled plastics or new materials. LPKF is working on innovative solutions for this, too, so that the advantages of laser technology – cleanliness and joining without chemicals or chip formation – over other joining technologies can continue to be used in as many application areas as possible.” The only requirement for a successful joining process is that one of the components must be
Main image: Large plastic parts such as those in or on cars
can be welded with laser technology
May 2021 | INJECTION WORLD 37
IMAGE: LPKF
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