Laser welding of polymers - new innovations for joining 3D geometries

Laser welding is quite well established technology to join plastics. There are several different techniques to join plastics that have been demonstrated recently in different cases. The currently used techniques are contour welding, quasi-simultaneous welding, simultaneous welding and mask welding. Each of these techniques has their pros and cons. The product designers push these techniques into their limits by introducing ever more eye-catching design, typically requiring e.g. excellent visual appearance and especially 3D joint geometries. In the future 3D joint geometries will be required frequently.

The possibilities of the use of these techniques in welding of 3D joint geometries were investigated in this study. The applicability of each technique was evaluated by economical and technical aspects. Each technology has e.g. different accessibility to the welding area. On the other hand there are differences in the investment required for different techniques when having a similar production cycle time. The weld properties vary between techniques and production time to reach certain level varies between techniques.