Hot-air welding uses a handheld welding gun. Welding rod (generally 3mm diameter) is forced into a nozzle on the end of the gun by the operator, this rod is then heated by hot air to its melting point. The same blast of hot air also softens the material the rod will join to. The gun is moved against the material while the rod is fed into a nozzle, the resulting join is very strong and is commonly used to make tanks that will be subjected to high pressures.

Chemical tanks, storage boxes, liners, pipe fittings, flanges etc etc can all be welded together in this way. Materials we weld using this method include Polypropylene, Polycarbonate, PETG and PVC.

Solvent welding, a solvent is applied which can temporarily dissolve the polymer at room temperature. When this occurs, the polymer chains are free to move in the liquid and can entangle with other similarly dissolved chains in the other component. Given sufficient time, the solvent will permeate through the polymer and out into the environment, so that the chains lose their mobility. This leaves a solid mass of entangled polymer chains which constitutes a solvent weld, using this method Atlas primarily weld PVC, Polycarbonate and Acrylics.

Ultrasonic welding uses high frequency (15 kHz to 40 kHz ) low amplitude vibration is used to create heat by way of friction between the materials to be joined. The interface of the two parts is specially designed to concentrate the energy for the maximum weld strength. Atlas primarily use this technique to join small plastic components.

Fusion Welding uses a hot plate coated with PTFE to heat the plastic being joined until it is molten then pressing the plastic parts together until they have cooled. The hot plate can be flat for pipes and corner pieces or a tool can be created for more complex parts (referred to as socket fusion welding) Atlas use this form of plastic welding primarily for joining pipes and profiles together.
 

 > For more information on plastic welding, visit TWI
       The above link redirects to The Welding Institute website.

 > Back to main fabrication page