Infrared Welding Process Advantages
- Greater design flexibility in material choice (all applications are non-contact).
- No need for replacement inserts and/or coating materials to prevent adhesion of the material to the platen (no contact with material).
- Instant on/off design requires no warm-up time (pre-heating) prior to starting production.
- Allows faster tooling changeovers as the platen assembly does not need to cool before being safely handled.
- Due to reduced molten material displacement, flash traps and cosmetic flash hiding skirts are often not required in the joint design.
- Convection currents are not a factor as with other thermal techniques such as hot plate welding.
- Contoured melt surfaces are possible with minimal complexity.
- Reduced power consumption. High power is drawn only when infrared energy is needed.
- Highly accurate melt control based on constant incoming voltage.
- Very cost effective when designing a common infrared emitter platen and changing of masks only.
- Recent tests indicate that joint strength of infrared welded glass filled Polyethersulfone exceeded any alternative welding process attempted.
