Variable rate welding of thermoplastic belts
AssigneeXerox Corporation
InventorDavid A. Eck
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A process for welding including providing sheet material comprising a thermoplastic polymer, overlapping edges of the sheet material to form a lap joint, supporting the lap joint on an anvil, and welding the lap joint by contacting and traversing the lap joint with an ultrasonic welding horn, the improvement comprising initially contacting and traversing the lap joint with the welding horn at a first predetermined traverse rate and thereafter increasing the first traverse rate to a second higher predetermined traverse rate.
Claims18
A process for welding comprising providing sheet material comprising a thermoplastic polymer, overlapping edges of said sheet material to form a lap joint, supporting said lap joint on an anvil, and welding said lap joint by contacting and traversing said lap joint with an ultrasonic welding horn, the improvement comprising initially contacting and traversing a first portion of said lap joint with said welding horn at a first predetermined traverse rate and thereafter increasing said first traverse rate to a final higher predetermined traverse rate over a second portion of said lap joint while maintaining said horn at a substantially constant frequency during the entire welding pass through said first and second portions.
A process for welding comprising providing a sheet comprising thermoplastic material, overlapping the leading edge and the trailing edge of said sheet to form a lap joint, supporting said lap joint on an anvil, and welding said seam by contacting and traversing said seam from one end to the other with an ultrasonic welding horn, the improvement comprising initially contacting and traversing a first portion of said seam with said welding horn at a traverse rate of between about 4 millimeters per second and about 25 millimeters per second and, after a predetermined time period of between about 0.2 second and about 2.5 seconds;
- increasing said traverse rate to a final rate between about 30 millimeters per second and about 70 millimeters per second over a second portion of said lap joint while maintaining said horn at a substantially constant frequency during the entire welding pass through said first and second portions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.