Thermoplastic welding
First Claim
1. A method of thermoplastic welding comprising:
- a. placing in a thermoplastic-containing bond line of bonding surfaces of at least one substrate, a-welding strip comprising;
1) an electric, current-conducting strip of a first resistance wherein said strip extends along said bond line of said bonding surfaces; and
2) a plurality of pairs of current-conducting, connector tabs of a second resistance in electrical contact with said strip, said first resistance being higher than said second resistance;
said connector tabs extending from said strip and said bond line to enable electrical connection to an electrical potential and spaced to allow application of said electrical potential to segments of said current-conducting strip; and
at least a portion of said connector tabs being spaced apart from each other; and
b. applying said electrical potential to a pair of said tabs to cause a current to flow through a portion of said strip thereby heating a segment of said strip to cause said thermoplastic to bond said bonding surfaces together.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A process for obtaining long, continuous, thermoplastic welds on large structures. A series of tabs are used in pairs and especially in alternating, overlapping pairs to obtain resistance heating of a strip material placed in the bond line. The resistance of the tabs is less than that of the strip material. Conducting braid-tubes afford continuous welding when the bond line is curved. Alternatively, an electromagnetic field is used to take advantage of the induction heating. A wide susceptor is used to weld a current conducting substrate while avoiding bulk heating of the substrate. The unexpected property of current-conducting braid-tube susceptors, in which induction heating takes place at the center rather than at the edges of a flattened braid-tube susceptor, is used to obtain long continuous curved welds.
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Citations
36 Claims
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1. A method of thermoplastic welding comprising:
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a. placing in a thermoplastic-containing bond line of bonding surfaces of at least one substrate, a-welding strip comprising; 1) an electric, current-conducting strip of a first resistance wherein said strip extends along said bond line of said bonding surfaces; and 2) a plurality of pairs of current-conducting, connector tabs of a second resistance in electrical contact with said strip, said first resistance being higher than said second resistance;
said connector tabs extending from said strip and said bond line to enable electrical connection to an electrical potential and spaced to allow application of said electrical potential to segments of said current-conducting strip; and
at least a portion of said connector tabs being spaced apart from each other; andb. applying said electrical potential to a pair of said tabs to cause a current to flow through a portion of said strip thereby heating a segment of said strip to cause said thermoplastic to bond said bonding surfaces together. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A welding strip comprising:
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a. a current-conducting, strip of a first resistance wherein said strip conforms to a bond line of surfaces to be joined; and b. a plurality of pairs of current-conducting, connector tabs of a second resistance in electrical contact with said strip, said first resistance being higher than said second resistance;
said connector tabs extending from said strip to extend from said bond line to enable electrical connection to an electrical potential to heat a segment of said strip; and
at least a portion of said connector tabs being spaced apart from each other. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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Specification