Plastic welding

I've tried it before on small, non-critical stuff. It works about as good as glue on the things I've tried.
 
It all depends on what types of plastic you are working with. If it is abs there are some better ways imo.
 
My last employer used polypropylene piping products. It was a heat fusion process to put the pipe and fittings together. The trick to it was the fittings, not the process. The fittings were manufactured with and interference fit. When the material was heated, it had the proper "material overrun" to make a strong, leak free joint. If you are welding flat surfaces together with filler rod, it's hard to nearly impossible to get a load bearing joint. Just my .02.
 
I've looked into it, it was going to cost $400-$500 to get a 'good' heat gun/blower setup to do things properly. Everything I read on several sites, all people said they tried the HF stuff with 'some' success but ended up with a higher quality setup for the real project and were happy with the results. Basically you need a constant temp. within the narrow temp. spec called for that material to properly melt/join the stuff.

I may experiment with it on the next project to save weight.

FWIW: On Gavans Jeep we experimented with bending the 1/8" plastic in my metal break and it worked very well. Basically fabricating with it like alum. using large head rivets etc.. We did the floor under the seats.
 
Im looking to butt 2 pieces of HDPE together. Same size & shape. There will be a compressive force along the joint, which is why I considered welding it.... something like this:
View attachment untitled.bmp

This joint also needs to be flexible (not brittle) to handle some movement, as well...

I have also thought of using 2 plates to bolt/rivet the 2 pieces together, like this:

untitled.GIF
 
we have had a lot of plastic welded at work and all of it has proved to be brittle. idk how stuff that thick would be, but when ever we have welded plastic (1/8in) crack, it is always along the weld.
 
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