Plastic welding

Since ten years plastic welding has been made possible with the evolution of laser sources and the arrival of laser diodes. It is today more and more used in the industry.

Plastic welding by laser consists in heating locally the parts to be welded to their melting point. Once it is reached, the parts are put in contact together to allow the interpenetration of the macromolecular chains. The so created junction has a breaking force at least equal to the one of the materials.

With diode laser emitting between 810 nm and 940 nm in near infrared, plastic materials can absorb a large quantity of light energy they receive. By conduction, the heat (approx. of 104W/cm2) spreads at the interface, enough to rise the temperature in surface of both materials to be welded, at speeds from 0.5 to 6 m/min.

Examples : 

Welding of moulded parts by injection

Invisible welding of composites

Welding of microfluidic systems for medical sector

Weldig of polymer/metal, elastomer/rigid plastic