Welding processes for plastics

To make large or complex thermoplastic parts, the most cost-effective method often involves molding two or more parts and joining them together. In such cases, the manufacturer has a variety of joining options, including adhesives, mechanical fastening, and fusion bonding or welding. Welding is particularly attractive for thermoplastic part assembly because joining times are often very short, enabling high throughput. Also, the various fusion processes typically produce strong joints, tolerate contaminated surfaces, and successfully join such difficult-to-bond substrates as polyolefins. They are also useful for joining polymers with low surface energies (such as polyethylene and polypropylene), which require complex surface activation treatments if they are to be adhesively joined.