Bonding method and apparatus

A method of joining adjoining surfaces of material adapted to be temporarily placed in a movable state, comprising the steps of interposing a plurality of particles at the interface of the surfaces to be joined, said particles being selected to move at the surfaces in response to a changing energy field, and subjecting said particles to a changing energy field to move said particles to enhance the joinder of the materials at the interface, said adjoining surfaces are placed in said flowable state by heating, said particles including particles responsive to a radio-frequency field to form heat sources, and said subjecting step including exposing said interface to a complex alternating magnetic field, said field including frequencies in the radio-frequency range activating said particles to generate heat and frequencies in the audio-frequency range to define a polarized agitating field interacting with said particles, said particles further including particles defining individual magnets which move in response to the changes in the polarization in said polarized agitating field.

A method of joining adjoining surfaces of material adapted to be temporarily placed in a movable state, comprising the steps of interposing a plurality of particles at the interface of the surfaces to be joined, said particles being selected to follow orientation of an energy field and thereby physically move at the surfaces in response to a changing energy field, and subjecting said particles to said changing energy field with a rate of change providing significant physical movement of said particles to enhance the joinder of the materials at the interface, all of said particles being of a similar magnetic material, said particles responding to a radio-frequency field to generate heat and being magnetizable to form a magnet, said field including a relatively low varying frequency magnetic field essentially no greater than an audio-frequency to move said particles and a second frequency magnetic field above essentially 10,000 hertz to generate heat in said particles.

A method of joining adjoining surfaces of material adapted to be temporarily placed in a movable state, comprising the steps of interposing a plurality of particles at the interface of the surfaces to be joined, said particles being selected to follow orientation of an energy field and thereby physically move at the surfaces in response to a changing energy field, and subjecting said particles to said changing energy field with a rate of change providing significant physical movement of said particles to enhance the joinder of the materials at the interface, said materials at said interface being formed of thermoplastic materials, said particles being formed of a nonconductive magnetic oxide, said energy field being a complex magnetic energy field including an alternating current radio-frequency magnetic energy field and an audio-frequency magnetic energy field.

The method of joining a pair of contacting heat-fusible thermoplastic surfaces at the interface, comprising the steps of positioning at the interface a deposit of fine discrete susceptor particles selected from the chemical family of ferromagnetic oxides, impressing a radio-frequency induction heating field upon said particles and thereby bringing said contacting interface materials to a flowable condition, and impressing a moving polarized magnetic field upon said particles at a frequency significantly lower than the frequency of said induction field to thereby cause such particles to physically move within said flowable material to agitate and intermix said two materials.

A method of joining adjoining surfaces of material adapted to be temporarily placed in a movable state, comprising the steps of placing the surfaces in said movable state, and applying a changing energy field to the interface of the surfaces while in said movable state, said energy field changing at a relatively low frequency whereby said surfaces can physically move in response to said changes and thereby significantly, physically move and agitate the surfaces and thereby enhance the joinder of the materials at the interface.