Infra-red emitters provide box welding
A
Heraeus Noblelight product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Aug 8, 2007
The weld achieved using short wave infra-red emitters was stronger than the parent material itself and that there was no burning of the HDPE.
Short wave infra-red emitters from Heraeus Noblelight are being used to weld various sections of an HDPE panel during its forming into a box construction within a special purpose machine, manufactured by Robot Units of Winsford.
The formed panels eventually form the rear section of a new lightweight, wheeled trolley intended for bulk deliveries to supermarkets and for transporting linen around hospitals.
Robot Units designs and manufactures modular, special purpose automation machines and systems for use in industrial sectors as diverse as aerospace and packaging.
These feature patented aluminium extrusions which provide stable and rigid lightweight support structures, housing modular belt conveyors, linear motion units, clamping devices and pneumatic power slides.
The company recently devised an innovative solution to a difficult problem when it was asked to design and build a machine to form a box section component from a flat, blow moulded panel.
The panel was supplied basically as an unfolded box, together with all the integral fixing lugs and holes and slots which would be used in subsequent assembly operations.
The lugs and slots, together with various mating faces, are used to weld the box together.
However, their location is such that they are of different thicknesses and geometry.
They are also of different shades.
The trolley designers considered that the welding would be impossible to achieve using contact methods, such as hot plate welding, as there would be unwanted scorching of the HDPE surface.
However, they were aware that infra-red had been used successfully in plastics welding and, consequently, Robot Units contacted Heraeus and tests were carried out at the company's Neston Applications Centre.
These demonstrated that the weld achieved using short wave infra-red emitters was stronger than the parent material itself and that there was no burning of the HDPE.
As result, an array of short wave infra-red emitters, of different lengths and power ratings, was fitted in the forming station of the Robot Units' machine.
When the flat moulding arrives at the forming station it is first clamped before the individual short wave emitters are fired up in a programmed sequence to comply with the geometry, thickness and colour of the plastic panel.
The flat panel is then folded by the pneumatic tooling and the selected, softened faces and connection points are welded together.
Cold air is then blasted into the station, the clamping force is removed and the box is removed from the machine.
The cycle time is between 15 and 45 seconds, depending on the panel loaded.
Heraeus Noblelight offers the complete range of infra-red radiation systems from NIR to medium-wave carbon infra-red (CIR).
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