Seminar Final Anand

LASER BEAM WELDING OF PLASTIC
A SEMINAR REPORT
Submitted by
ANAND GARG (12ME001637)
in partial fulfillment for the award of the degree

of
BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY
in
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
SIR PADAMPAT SINGHANIA UNIVERSITY, UDAIPUR

APRIL 2016
ANAND GARG/ME/SPSU/Seminar/2025-16Page 1
BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE
Certified that this project report LASER BEAM WELDING OF PLASTIC is
the bonafide work of ANAND GARG who carried out the seminar work
under my supervision.
(Prof. G. D. Bassan)
HEAD
Mechanical Engineering Department
Sir Padampat Singhania University
Udaipur
(Prof. X. Y. Zha)
SUPERVISOR
Assistant Professor
Mechanical Engineering Department
Sir Padampat Singhania University
Udaipur
ABSTRACT
.
The laser was invented in 1960. So new was the tool that our
thinking had not caught up with the possibility William M. Steen. New
possibilities are still arising as a consequence and cause of the laser's
increasing reliability, decreasing price and the diversification of laser
characteristics.
The demand for consumer goods, namely, food and medical products,
to be conveniently packaged in plastic materials in order to preserve quality
and hygiene, is constantly increasing, as are the number of packaging styles
and materials.
The replacement of traditional tools, used to cut or weld in the plastic
packaging industry (hot knives, ultrasonic heads or hot air), by laser tools,
can be justified by the increase in the reproducibility of the process (no tool
wear), simplicity of processing moving parts (no need to `stop and start a
production lines) and increase in productivity moving the laser beam over
the material faster than the mechanical counterpart. Not to mention the wellknown general advantages of laser materials processing, as a non-contact,
non-contaminant process, flexible and easy to control and automate.
The first few communications on plastic welding by laser appeared in
the literature
in 1972, welds of low-density polyethylene sheets up to 1.5mm thick were
achieved with a 100W CO2 laser at speeds of 10mms~1. However, it has
been during the last decade that research in this subject has seen greater
development, regarding increasing speed, new laser sources mathematical
modelling and industrial applications. It is very likely that much more
proprietary industrial work has been done, but not published. The
component-conserving and clean process offers numerous advantages and
enables welding of sensitive assemblies in automotive, electronic, medical,
human care, food packaging and consumer electronics markets. Diode lasers
are established since years within plastic welding applications
Table of Contents
Title Page.. (i)
Acknowledgement.... (iii)
Abstract..(iv)
Table of Contents. (v)
List of Figures... (vi)
List of Tables.... (vii)
List of Abbreviation. (viii)
1. Introduction.... 1
2. Laser Plastic Welding. 6

2.1 Fundamentals of laser welding of plastics
2.2 Lasers used for welding plastics
2.3 Welding of plastics of the same type
2.4 Joining of dissimilar plastics
2.6 Advantage
2.7 Application
3. CONCLUSION... 49
4.
REFERENCES.... 51
LIST OF FIGURES
Sr. No.
1.1
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
3.1
3.2
4.1
4.2
5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4
5.5
Title of Figure
Worlds demand for selected constructional
materials (Hyla 2004)
The Process of Transmission Laser Welding
Method of Welding Plastic Component
Assembly of Automobile Light
Material Compatibility
Equipment for Light Laser Welding using
Nd:YAG or CO2 laser
Hybrid Welding Equipment by LPKF Company
Principle of novel infrared radiation welding
procedure with a transparent heat sink
Transmission Spectra of Plastics
Galvo pyro combination
Melt Collapse
Reflection Diagnosis Concept
Camera view of flaw
Cycle Time Comparison
Page Number
2
6
8
17
17
24
26
29
30
33
35
36
37
39
LIST OF TABLES
Sr. No.
2.1
2.2
2.3
Title of Table
Comparison with Bonding
Main technical characteristics of the individual
lasers used for welding plastics
Weld-ability of different plastics
Page Number
11
12
15
1. Introduction
Plastic materials form such a large and varied group, characterised by so
wide a range of properties that it is now normal to call them mass material. It
is difficult to conceive of plastics being substituted for by other materials. In
certain circumstances, this group of materials is a substitute for traditional
materials, such as steels and non-ferrous metals. The high level of experience
that is associated with current methods of manufacture of semi-fabricates in
plastic materials provides designers with unlimited possibilities to produce new
products, often of complicated shapes. Modern bonding methods, such as laserwelding, make it possible to widen the range, and this in turn, gives a chance to
free selection of shape to be made, and properties of new product to be
developed.
The constantly growing utilisation of plastics in the industry creates new
possibilities for constructional solutions, lowering of cost and mass of
fabricates, and also for the rising of durability levels, resistance to corrosion and
action of many chemical agents (Hyla 2004). All of the above listed factors lead
to call for more plastics and for their participation in the worlds production of
constructional materials to rise at a high rate (see Figure). Over1000 various
types of such materials are currently available on the world markets. From the
point of view of bulk, they constitute over half of the production of steels.
According to data produced in 2000, the use of these materials in the world in
1993 amounted to 90 m tons. It rose in 1999 to about a 100 m, and is expected
to reach over 120 m tons by 2020 (Zuchowska 2000).
In line with the popularisation of plastics as constructional materials
comes the development of bonding methods and the provision for selection of
welding techniques correct from the point of view of the level of yield and the
economy of bonding.
The need for effective and reliable bonding methods and requirements for
improved quality of products are undoubtedly reasons for the development of
new processes of bonding plastics (Boron 2000), which also include laserwelding. Not only does this method provide high efficiency, the highest possible
levels of quality and strength of bonds, but also the maintenance of high
manufacturing precision and cleanliness of the joint area.
Fig 1.1 : Worlds demand for selected constructional materials (Hyla

2004).
The laser welding of plastics is the advanced technology of joining of sheets,

films or shaped components produced from polymers in heating with the
focused beam of laser radiation. Laser welding was demonstrated for the first
time in the 1970s and has been regarded for many years as an expensive process
in competition with the conventional technologies of joining of components.
Nevertheless, since the middle of the 1990s, laser technology has been widely
accepted as a result of advances in the area of laser methods.
The laser welding systems are most efficient in the applications in which
the welded components require careful handling (electronic components) or
sterile conditions (medical tools, packing of food products, etc.). The very high
speed of laser welding makes this method especially valuable in applications in
the assembly lines of plastic components. Laser welding
can also be used to join components with complicated geometry which are
difficult or impossible to weld by other methods. Engineers often note special
advantages of laser technologies which will result in the active growth of the
number of industrial applications the absence of contact of welding equipment
with the welded components; very low labour content; the possibility of joining
materials of different composition and colour; high quality of welded joints;
only slight heating of components and minimum deformation; possibility of
welding in areas of difficult access and different spatial position; simple
automation and robotization; efficient use of electric energy and filler materials;
comfortable working conditions and ecological efficiency.
Laser welding is used extensively in electronics in assembling keyboards
for different systems, mobile telephones, a large number of contact devices, etc.
and also in the car industry in the production and assembly of automatic door
locks, devices for keyless access, heating models, the bodies of transmissions,
sensors of sections of engines, the bodies of the driver cabins, the oil tanks of
the hydraulic systems, filter casings and many other systems. In medicine, laser
welding is used for assembly of containers and filters for liquids, joining of
pipes, bags for patients with intestinal problems, implants and micro jet
elements used for analysis, etc. The technology of melting the edges of thin
plastic films for hermetic packing items is used widely.
Laser welding of plastics is a very young technological process. As a
result of the development by technologists and also rapid advances in laser
technology, the methods of laser welding are being constantly improved. The
authors of the present article have already discussed this subject many times. At
the same time, it is believed that the laser welding of plastics is an independent
section of laser technology and has a considerable scientific and industrial
potential. It is therefore convenient to consider separately in this article the
current state and dynamics of investigations and developments and also the
prospects of this advanced technological process.
Traditional methods of welding plastics
Plastics are used as structural materials in engineering, the car industry,
aviation, instrument making, electrical engineering, shipbuilding, etc. Polymer
materials are used as films, adhesives and fibres. The process of welding of
plastics consists of the formation of a permanent joint as a result of the
formation of interatomic (intermolecular) bonds between the surface atoms of
two welded components. Thermoplastics are welded using the heat of secondary
sources (gas heat carriers, heated filler material and heated tools) or by the
generation of heat inside the plastic material in conversion of different types of
energy (friction welding, high-frequency current welding, ultrasonic welding,
welding with infrared radiation, etc.). Thermosetting plastics (thermosets) are
welded by the method based on the chemical interaction between the surfaces
directly or with participation of filler material (the so-called chemical welding).
As in the welding of metals, in welding of plastics it is necessary to
ensure that the mechanical and physical properties of the material of the welded
joints and the weld zone differ only slightly from those of the parent material.
The strength of the welded joints in the plastics is greatly affected by the
chemical composition, the orientation of macromolecules, the temperature of
the environment and other factors. The most widely used methods of welding
plastics include welding with a gas heat carrier with or without a filler, with an
extruded filler, contact-thermal welding, welding in a high-frequency electric
field, ultrasonic welding, friction welding, beam and chemical welding.
It is well known that not all the types of plastics can be welded. In
particular, the thermally hardened plastics (which do not melt under heat) cannot
be welded. On the other hand, thermoplastic materials (melting during heating)
can be welded by a large number of methods. It is believed that only plastics of
the same type can be welded because every type of plastic material has its own
typical molecular structure and welding temperature. The joining of plastics by
welding takes place if the three constant conditions are fulfilled:
.
Higher temperature which should reach the level of the viscous-fluid state
of the welded materials. The transition of the polymer to the viscous-fluid
state should not be accompanied by thermal degradation of the material.
Every plastic melts within a specific temperature range;
.
Tight contact of the welded surfaces. Pressure enables the molecules of
the plastics to mix with the formation of the welded joints. The quality of
the welded joint decreases when the pressure is reduced below or is
higher than the optimum pressure for every pair of materials;
.
Optimum holding time because the plastic material requires a certain
period of time for melting and a certain period of time for cooling. It
should be mentioned that the temperature coefficient of linear expansion
of plastic materials is several times higher than that of the metals and,
therefore, welding and cooling are accompanied by the formation of the
residual stresses and strains which reduce the strength of the welded
joints in the plastics. In this case, acceleration of the welding process may
cause higher stresses in the region of the welded joint.
There are a large number of systems for welding plastics on the market but no
universal
welding technology is available.
LASER PLASTIC WELDING

2.1Fundamentals of laser welding of plastics
Laser welding rightly occupies the leading position in the group of
the advanced technologies of beam welding of plastics. Special features of
the laser welding processes, resulting in very rapid introduction into various
branches of industry, are the absence of direct contact between the emitter
(heat) and the welded surfaces, and also the possibility of controlling a wide
range of the heating conditions as a result of changes of radiation power, and
the heat and light absorbing capacity of the welded materials. At the present
time, transmission (penetrating) laser welding is used widely. This type of
welding has a number of significant advantages in comparison with the
traditional methods of welding plastic materials, such as vibration, contact
thermal or ultrasonic welding.
Fig 2.1: The process of transmission laser welding: (1) laser beam; (2)
clamping force; (3) melt;
(4) the component permeable for the laser beam and (5) heat transfer.
Transmission laser welding is based on the physical effect in which

many polymers efficiently absorb radiation in the near-infrared range. A
relatively narrow wavelength range (8002000 nm) is used for welding.
Usually, the components to be welded are placed in a clamping device
which compresses the components together with maximum force. In the
conventional device, the material of the component which is the first to be
affected by the beam is selected to ensure that it transmits maximum radiation
(Figure 1). The material of the second component should be capable of
absorbing laser radiation. The laser radiation beam passes through the first
(transparent) component and is absorbed by the material of the second
component of the joint generating a large amount of heat. Since both the
components are tightly pressed to each other, the heat is transferred from the
absorbing layer to the transmitting layer and heats both components. The thin
layers of the plastic, situated on both sides of the joint, melt, mix together and
form strong joints during cooling. The main critical process parameters are
temperature, holding time and pressure.
The energy density required for welding is associated with the
temperature of the component and the duration of the process and is determined
by the laser power, the size of the working spot of radiation on the component,
the radiation time (for stationary processes) or welding speed (in the processes
with relative displacement of the components). The energy density in this case is
proportional to the radiation power and inversely proportional to the area of the
focused beam on the processed surface and the speed of travel of the beam in
relation to the surface.
If the level of laser radiation energy in the welding zone is not sufficiently
high, heating may prove to be insufficient and, correspondingly, the welded
components are not held for a sufficiently long period of time in the heated state
for the formation of a strong joint. On the other hand, in excessive heating the
polymers may degrade in the joint zone resulting in the formation of porosity,
charring or burning. In practice, there is a wide range of conditions for each
specific joint in which the joints of acceptable quality form. The majority of
polymers are welded using an laser energy density in the range of 0.1 2.0
J/mm2. Regardless of the fact that the energy density in the welding zone can be
used to characterize the process, many authors believe that this correspondence
is only conditional. The heat transfer from the welding zone in the welding
process should be taken into account and this makes the process non-linear. This
means that the application of the same energy density results in the same quality
of the welded joint. For example, at a constant size of the focused radiation
spot, doubling the radiation power
usually increases the welding speed by more than 100% whereas the welding
characteristics remain the same:
where Ew is the radiation energy supply to the welding zone; P is the laser
radiation power in the vicinity of the welding zone, and v is the speed of travel
of the beam in relation to the welded components.
In cases in which the welded plastic components are not compressed to each
other or the compression pressure is not sufficiently high, the contact between
the components is not sufficiently tight. This may result either in inefficient heat
transfer from one component to the other or in limited mutual diffusion of the
polymer chains on both sides of the joints. In both cases, the strength of the
welded joint is reduced. Therefore, reliable clamping and securing of the
welded components in the weld zone is an important technical condition. The
clamps
Fig 2.2 : Methods of welding plastic components: (a) with the moving
object in welding; (b) with the moving beam; (c) with the fans shaped
distribution of radiation;
(d) simultaneous (synchronous) welding around the perimeter (contour)

and (e) with the scanning radiation beam.
Laser welding is used for joining components of different shapes, size
and configuration. There are several main methods of laser welding differing in
the methods of generating the forces in the range of 0.11.0 N/mm2 are used in
most cases. Transmission welding using Nd:YAG or diode lasers has been used
to weld successfully the plastic components more than 1mm thick at a linear
welding speed greater than 20 m/min. The welding speed in welding of films
using CO2 lasers can be even higher, up to 750 m/min, although technologists
frequently mention the restrictions of carbon dioxide laser. relative displacement
of the welded components and the laser radiation beam (Figure 2).
At a stationary radiation beam, the components to be welded are moved to

produce a continuous joint (Figure 2(a)). In most cases, this displacement is
produced using a table with movement along one or two coordinates and can be
easily programmed. This method is used only in cases in which welding in three
coordinates is not required.
The optical system for the radiation beam, supplied by the optical
waveguide, or the head of the diode laser can be installed in robotized
equipment, including the three coordinate systems of the hand. In these cases,
the laser or the final element of the optical system travels along the trajectory
(the contour) corresponding to the future welded joint. In welding along the
contour, the layers are gradually welded by the laser beam which travels and
melts the material along the welded joint. In a different variant of this welding
system, the components, compressed to each other, travel in relation to the
stationary laser beam. In the automatic systems, the displacement of the laser
beam is often combined with the displacement of the components. In
synchronous welding with several beams, the laser radiation from, for example,
several laser diodes is directed to the contour line of the welded joint which is to
be welded resulting in simultaneous melting and welding of the entire profile
(Figures 2(b) and (d)). One of the varieties of this welding method is based on
the radiation of a single laser split into several separate beams which are
subsequently applied together on the component to improve the strength of the
effect. In some cases, it is recommended to use quasi-synchronous welding ,
which is based on the combination of welding around the contour and
synchronous welding. The mirrors direct the laser beam at a high speed (at least
10 m/s) along the component which is to be welded. The entire contour of the
component is then gradually heated and melts.
Welding with a template is slightly different. In this welding method, the

laser beam is applied to the component through a specially produced template
which does not cover small, precisely defined areas of the underlying plastic
layers which will be melted and bonded.The method can be used for producing
precision joints with a high resolution, up to 10 mm.
In cases in which the laser power is adequate, welding is carried out with
the fan-shaped distribution of radiation in which laser radiation is distributed in
a flat diverging beam and forms a line on the surface of the component (Figure
2(c)). During welding, the beam or the component travels in a specific direction.
Masks which protect sections of the component that should not be subjected to
radiation are used in some cases. This method is often used in two dimensional
welding of small components with the complicated configuration of the welded
joint.
If it is required to produce a large number of identical short welded joints
or weld spots, it is recommended to use the matrix of diode emitters which is
shaped according to the shape of the component and assembled taking into
account the number of welded joints. This method, which is used if
simultaneous laser radiation is to be applied along the entire length of the joint,
is usually automated. This is carried out using basic equipment for ultrasonic
welding in which laser technology efficiently replaces the ultrasonic process in
the technology of joining components sensitive to vibrations and where highquality welded joints are to be produced. The technology of simultaneous
welding permits both two dimensional and three-dimensional configuration. A
particular advantage of this method of laser welding is the larger allowance for
the welding operation.
The laser radiation beam in welding with scanning (Figure 2(e)) is
deflected by two orthogonal mirrors controlled by the direction of propagation
of the beam in space. The working zone in the systems of this type has the
transverse dimensions from 50 x 50 to 1000 x 1000mm in two-dimensional
welding. Generally speaking, the main problem when increasing the treatment
area is the appropriate increase in the difference of the working path of the laser
beam so that it is necessary to under focus the beam. An efficient method of
coordinating the focusing of the beam in different areas of the treated surface is
the application of several scanning optical systems, and the combination of the
systems increases the length of the treatment zone. As in simultaneous welding,
these welded joints overlap the entire joint zone
and are characterized by high shrinkage of the material and potentially

larger welding
allowances.
Table 2.1: Comparison with Bonding
2.2 Lasers used for welding plastics

Several main types of lasers are used in industry for welding of plastics at
the present time. These include CO2 lasers, solid-state lasers (with lamp or
diode pumping) and fibre lasers. Recently, high-power diode lasers have also
been used widely in certain areas of production.
Table 2.2: main technical characteristics of the individual lasers used for
welding plastics
CO2 lasers are used at a wavelength of 10.6 mm in the infrared range.

Usually, these lasers generate a beam of highly collimated radiation with a
diameter from several millimetres to several centimetres. A significant
shortcoming of the CO2 lasers (like of any gas laser) is the low efficiency (the
radiation power, related to the electrical power in pumping) resulting in high
production costs. The second shortcoming of the powerful gas lasers is their
large dimensions. Both factors introduce a number of restrictions on use in the
actual technological process. In addition to this, the radiation of CO2 lasers
cannot be sharply focused because of the multimode structure and large
wavelength of radiation (laser radiation of the majority of lasers) and, therefore,
equipment based on CO2 lasers is used mainly for welding of films.
The collimated radiation beam at the exit of the solid state lasers, where
the pumping of radiation from the lamp or a group of light diodes is focused
injected into the laser bar or discs, has the wavelength in the near-infrared
region (usually 1.064 mm) and is transferred to the treatment area through the
light waveguide. The solid-state lasers with lamp pumping are
characterized by the relatively low efficiency and, in addition to this, the

pumping lamps require regular and relatively frequent replacement. This greatly
increases the service costs. Nevertheless, the commercial technologies of
welding using these lasers have been developed quite extensively. The lasers
with diode pumping (DPSS) have a considerably higher reliability, longer
service periods and the low cost of materials and components. However, the
initial price of these lasers is slightly higher and this requires higher initial
investment and actually equalizes the service costs of the solid-state lasers of
both types.
The fibre lasers with doping the active substance with rare-earth elements
generate radiation with the single wavelength in the range of 1.02.1 mm.
Usually, fibre lasers are quite small and the active element can be cooled by
water. Taking into account the large amount of data obtained in recent years, the
optimum possibilities of fibre lasers are used in particular in welding plastic
materials, including precision welding and welding of films and fabrics. As
regards the concept, the fibre lasers resemble solid-state lasers with diode
pumping, with the only difference being that the role of the laser medium is
played by the optical waveguide. The single-mode fibre lasers are capable of
generating the radiation beam at the same wavelength and similar power as the
DPSS lasers. A particular advantage of these lasers in comparison with the
solid-state generators is that they generate a sharply directed beam which can be
simply focused into a very small spot.
A number of important developments in the last decade in the area of
diode laser technology expanded the possibilities of laser welding and also
greatly changed the economic parameters of these processes. Consequently, the
diode lasers of the new generation are replacing conventional sources of laser
radiation in many industrial technologies, including welding. The diode lasers
are characterized by the compact form, the relatively low initial price and
service costs, high efficiency (up to 60% on the emitter) and a large number of
variants of the radiation wavelength (e.g., 405, 640, 7901060 and 1450 nm,
which is convenient in welding different types of plastics). On the other hand, as
a result of the relatively simple design of the resonator, the laser diodes do not
have a facility for efficient adjusting of the radiation beam, which results in low
coherence and a wide radiation spectrum (sharper focusing of the beam is not
possible), and also the resultant short working distances .
The efficiency of the laser is the ratio of the emitted power to the power
required by the laser in the standard mode, the quality of the beam (Table 1) is
the possibility of sharper focusing of radiation with a high power density in the
working spot.
Laser welding of two identical or similar (as regards chemical
composition) plastics is a widely used technological process, especially if it is
necessary to produce high-quality joints with high productivity. In many cases,
laser technology is the result of optimization of the technology of joining and
selecting the material. In transition from the traditional welding technologies to
laser treatment, it is often necessary to change the materials and this may result
in considerably lower costs in comparison with the conservative process. For
example, in analysis of the production problems, the experts of Barkston
Plastics Engineering (the well-known British producer of unique elastic
components) noted the low repeatability of the characteristics of a series of
propylene bags for the storage of liquid chemical reagents in lithographic
equipment for the production of printed boards. In the technology used by the
company, these bags were assembled by manual gas welding.

As an alternative to traditional welding, transmission laser welding
was selected in the modernized process. In designing new technology, it was
important to take into account two essential requirements: the strength of the
joint should not be lower than in standard gas welding, and the joint should be
leak tight. Previously, the bags were produced from natural polypropylene. To
increase the technological parameters of the new process, including laser
welding, the edges of the end sheets were produced as previously from the same
polypropylene which is transparent to laser radiation in the near-infrared region
of the spectrum, whereas the transverse sections of the bags are pressed from
polypropylene sheets which efficiently absorb laser radiation. The welded
joints, produced by the new technology, have the same strength as those
produced by the standard technology no failures were detected in the welded
joints in both cases. The new process greatly simplifies the design of the
transverse sections and produces efficiently leak tight joints. Subsequently, the
process was automated and introduced into the production cycle.
At the present time, the bags are welded by a robot of Motoman

company with six degrees of freedom, controlled by a diode laser manufactured
by Laserlines. The components are secured and compressed using a ring shaped
sliding clamp controlled by a pneumatic drive.
Laser welding of identical plastics showed the highest efficiency in lap
welding of thermoplastic films.
The application of laser radiation for joining the reinforced thermoplastic
composites offers new possibilities for overcoming the shortcomings of the
traditional technologies. In this case, laser welding is ecologically clean because
no chemical additions or adhesives are required. The accuracy, flexibility of

laser technology and also the high-quality welded joints are already utilized in a
large number of industrial applications.Laser transmission welding has been
introduced in the industry in the manufacture of thermoplastic composites with
short fibres, where the laser efficiently replaces welding with a hot air jet. Of
special interest in recent years has been the possibility of welding reinforced
composites with the long fibre structure (long fibre reinforced thermoplastic
composites LFTPC thermoplastics with the fibre length greater than 6 mm).
The authors of developed technical fundamentals of laser technology utilizing
the natural properties of the material. The new technology is based on the layer
welding and the mechanical characteristics of the welded joints were
determined. The test results show that laser welding is a superior and highly
promising technology for joining many combinations of materials used in the
automobile and aviation industries and is characterized by considerably better
ecological parameters and safety of the processes in comparison with the
conventional adhesive bonding technologies.
Table 2.3: Weldability of different plastics
2.4 Joining of dissimilar plastics

Transmission laser welding differs only slightly from other welding
processes in joining of the different combinations of dissimilar plastics. Many
authors have noted that the dissimilar plastics cannot be welded with high
quality. Nevertheless, there are also exceptions from this rule. One of them is
the technology of melting sections of rear lights of vehicles where the
polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) lenses are joined to the body made of
acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) by the contact method. The results of
introduction of laser welding in assembling of identical sections have also been
published (Figure 3). Dissimilar combinations which can be welded should be
chemically compatible and also have similar glass transition temperatures
(amorphous polymers) or similar melting points (polycrystalline polymers).
Table 2 gives the data for welding dissimilar plastics. It may be seen that the
materials not listed in Table 2 can be welded usually only to the plastics of the
same type.
Almost all thermoplastics and thermoplastic elastomers can be laser welded.
Some structural plastics, such as polyphenyl sulphide and liquid crystal
polymers, are difficult to weld by laser welding because of low permeability for
laser radiation. In order to make the lower layer capable of absorbing the energy
of laser beams, carbon soot is often added to these layers. Laser welding is used
to join both non-saturated polymers and also polymers reinforced with glass
fibres. Lasers can be used for welding coloured plastics but the permeability for
laser beams decreases with an increase the concentration of the dye or pigment.
Many authors have published tables of the weldability of dissimilar
plastics. The most detailed results for laser welding are found in the tables of
regularly updated website www.laserplasticwelding.com maintained by the

enthusiasts and professionals in laser welding technology.
Fig 2.3 : Assembly of the automobile light (by the method of laser welding using
a glass sphere which focuses the laser beam and also acts as the clamping
device).
Fig 2.4 : Material Compatibility Chart
2.5 Welding of transparent plastics

Until recently, in the introduction of welding technology it was necessary
to use standard materials, and in the majority of cases both welded materials
were visually non transparent. The technological restriction of transmission
laser welding the upper layer (component) should be transparent to laser
radiation and the lower layer should absorbs laser radiation, considerably
limited the design possibilities. In transition to laser technology, this usually
included the change of the material to a suitable material or addition of a dye to
the plastic to increase its absorptivity. At the same time, for example, in the
medical industry, today are a large number of tasks in which one or frequently
both welded components should be transparent. This circumstance has greatly
restricted the areas of application of laser technology. Therefore, in many
processes of this type it has been necessary to develop a welding technology
without using additional absorbing materials. However, such materials are either
very expensive or have different colour shades which are not acceptable in
components.
A breakthrough in the welding of transparent plastic was made by the
British company TWI which reported the development of a new technology in a
patent in 2003. Clearweld Technology is based on the application of plastic
materials with a high absorptivity as the laser radiation wavelength (and at the
same time the minimum absorptivity in the visible range of the spectrum). This
approach can be used to produce welded joints with the minimum effect on the
external appearance of the component, and offers considerable flexibility in the
selection of materials and colours. The absorbing material is represented by an
additional coating or the lower layer of the welded pair.
Many systems of pair plastics with the selection of appropriate colours
providing further possibilities for designers have been developed. The only
condition in the pair is the coincidence of the visual colour and the large
difference in the absorptivity of the radiation wavelength of the working laser.
The very first application of the method was welding of two visually black
materials; at the present time, a large number of systems of pairs, including
white materials, are available. The project Poly Bright awarded to the scientific
and research organizations of the European Community countries has been
formulated for detailed investigations of laser welding of polymers and for the
development of technological conditions of high speed and flexible industrial
laser technologies. The key aspect of the project
is the extensive application of the fibre lasers with the power of up to 500W
which can be used to optimize not only the thermal parameter of the welding
process but also the wavelength to increase the efficiency and speed in welding
and the quality of the joint.
New laser welding systems have been developed, the resolution of technology
has been improved by using dynamic masks in high-frequency scanning
systems for transporting and focusing the beam.
The experimental results show that the most promising results in laser
technology can be obtained by selecting laser radiation with the wavelength at
which the welded plastics have the required properties.
The latest technology and prospects for laser welding without absorption
of radiation on the example of the components of transparent PMMA polymer
films using the accurate selection of the wavelength of laser radiation and
radiation techniques have been published in research.
Regardless of the completely different physical principle of welding, the authors
have managed to obtain the highest technological parameters of the process.
The welding speed reached up to 100mm/s at the laser radiation wavelength of
1550, 1700 and 1908 nm. The best spectrometric results have been obtained at
the radiation wavelength of approximately 1700 nm which is used by many
fibre lasers. To supply the radiation to the weld boundary of the transparent
materials, the authors developed a special lens optical system in which the focal
point is situated at the interface with high geometrical accuracy.
2.6Advantage:
1. Lower Joining Cost
2. Minimal Part Stress
3. Joint Strength
4. 3d & Complex Shapes
5. No Particulate Development
6. Precision
7. Aesthetically Pleasing Weld
8. Weld Different Material
9. Process Monitoring
2.7 Application
Nearly two decades old, laser plastic welding is gradually gaining a

foothold in the plastics joining universe. It started out as a niche welding
method providing specialized welds for cutting edge applications that could not
be joined by traditional methods. Today the technique is becoming more widely
used.
Plummeting costs of laser sources and I higher demand for the systems
themselves are driving the cost to adopt laser welding down. In fact, the cost of
a standard laser welding system is now on par with traditional methods such as
ultrasonic and hot plate welding.
Currently you can find the majority of applications in three major
industries: automotive, medical and consumer products. However, with the cost
barrier alleviated, laser plastic welding is beginning to look more attractive to
wider range of applications and industries.
AUTO
MEDICAL
CONSUMER
Automotive
The automotive industry created the foundation for laser welding. The
original use was welding housings for electronic components. A simple task, but
as electronics become more prevalent in cars (approaching 35% of the total cost
of a vehicle) protecting those electronics is becoming increasingly important.
A stress free, reliable and highly monitored process allows for tightly
sealed housings, with no additional material costs and a near perfect reject rate.
The high volume applications in the automotive industry clearly benefit from
such a process.
The flexibility of laser welding does not stop there. Through the use of
robots, laser welding was able to expand its abilities in the automotive industry
to include lamp welding. Clean, strong joints have been sought after for
automotive lamp assembly ever since plastics
replaced glass for exterior lighting. Laser welding is a stress free process and
clean, aesthetically appealing joints are easily achieved. But, possibly even
more important is its ability to work on large, free-form shapes with complex
curves, a vice of most traditional welding methods.
Other applications in the automotive industry include welding of
instrument panels, keyless entry remotes and even fuel tanks.
Medical
The medical device industry is quickly growing, requiring joining of
plastic devices ranging from catheters to microfluidic devices. The surgical
nature of laser plastic welding makes it well suited to handle the delicate
devices and precision joining.
Besides hermetic seals and a high precision requirement, medical devices
often require perfectly clean joints. This task is often difficult for other joining
methods. Adhesives can cause contamination, especially at the micro level
where many of these devices are operating and traditional welding methods
such as ultrasonic and vibration leave dust-like particulates behind that can also
contaminate the device.

Consumer
The consumer products industry is a large one, but as of yet it still lags
behind automotive and medical. The main reason for this is because typically
consumer products do not require the specialized needs of laser plastic welding
(precision, clean joints, stress free welds, etc.) or if they do, it is not to a degree
that other welding methods cannot accommodate.
However, as laser welding systems become less capital intensive it is
likely that adoption will increase in this industry. Consumer products are often
at high enough volumes that they will benefit from the low production costs
associated with laser welding. Also, as consumer electronics become smaller the
precision and low-stress capabilities will become increasingly attractive.
3. Conclusions
Laser welding of plastics is a highly specialized technology of joining

components which can be used most efficiently in applications requiring highspeed welding and welding of brittle components or components requiring
sterile conditions. The laser beam welding often has technological advantages in
comparison with the traditional technologies of welding components. Service
experience shows that industrial equipment for laser welding of polymers has a
number of special practical
Advantages
high-quality welded joints and the possibility of producing leak tight
joints;
the possibility of packaging components sensitive to vibration because
the components do not move during welding;
reduction the degree of distortion of the components in welding of heatsensitive components because the size of the heat-affected zone is small;
reduced contamination of the environment and reduced amount of
welding fumes because the molten material is situated inside the joint and
is in contact with the equipment;
reduced energy requirement because laser radiation is focused only in the
zone of the formation of the welded joint and only the small volume of
the polymer is remelted so that the efficiency of the process is very high;
the high degree of automation of the process resulting in higher quality of
the components and reproducibility of the results;
Flexibility of the process and equipment the laser system can also be
used in other production lines.
Comparison with CO2 arc Welding:

In comparison to CO2 gas arc welding, LBW can significantly reduce the
welding deformation
The range with high longitudinal tensile stress in the joint welded by
LBW is significantly narrower than that generated by CO2 gas arc
welding. Moreover, the maximum value of longitudinal residual stress
generated by the former is smaller
than that caused by the latter.

Laser welding of plastics is an established process that is used in more and more
applications in different markets and is increasingly displacing the traditional
welding methods. In medical device manufacturing, for instance, cleanliness is
absolutely mandatory. Hence, laser welding is particularly well established in this
market. In the automotive supply industry the parts are equipped with sensitive
electronic components or guide and contain fluid - here laser beam welding is the
method of choice. In combination with process control, the diode laser will make
its way to a variety of future applications.
The use of lasers in the industry for the bonding of plastics has increased in
last decades. According to the literature (Herzinger, Schloms 1995), some 25% of
the industry employing lasers is concentrated in Japan. This is due to the
development of the industry and economy of that country. It is expected that in the
future some 10% of all of the joints in plastics will be laser-produced (Grande
2004).
The laser technology offers novel solutions that permit to off-set limitations,
often imposed by conventional methods. Technological progress that has taken
place in last years and the requirements that the development of the industry poses
indicate that this technology of bonding plastics will further develop.
4.References
1. G.V. Moskvitin , A.N. Polyakov & E.M. Birger (2013) Laser Welding Of
Plastics (Review), Welding International, 27:9, 725-734, DOI:
10.1080/09507116.2012.753282
2. A. Weglowska (2008) Modern methods of laser-welding of plastics, Welding
International, 22:2,100-104, DOI: 10.1080/09507110801990819
3. Andor Bauernhuber & Tams Markovits (2014) Hybrid joining of steel and
plastic
materials
by
laser
beam,
Transport,
29:2,
217-222,
DOI:
10.3846/16484142. 2013. 785445

4. F. Quadrini , L. Santo & F. Trovalusci (2008) Diode Laser Welding of
Polyethylene, Polymer-Plastics Technology and Engineering, 47:7, 655-661,
DOI: 10.1080/03602550802129502
5. Satoh Kimitoshi & Kurosaki Yasuo (2010) A fiber laser welding of plastics
assisted by transparent solid heat sink to prevent the surface thermal damages,
Physics Procedia 5 (2010) 173181
6. Sun Jiamin, Liu Xiaozha,Tong Yangang, Deng Dean (2014) A comparative
study on welding temperature fields, residual stress distributions and
deformations induced by laser beam welding and CO2 gas arc welding,
Materials and Design 63 (2014) 519530
7. J.P. Coelho, M.A. Abreu, M.C. Pires (2000) High-speed laser welding of plastic
films, Optics and Lasers in Engineering 34 (2000) 385-395
8. S. Reinl (2013) Diode lasers used in plastic welding and selective laser
soldering applications and products, Laser in Manufacturing Conference 2013
9. http://www.laserplasticwelding.com/

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LASER BEAM WELDING OF PLASTIC

ANAND GARG (12ME001637)

in partial fulfillment for the award of the degree

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

SIR PADAMPAT SINGHANIA UNIVERSITY, UDAIPUR

2. Laser Plastic Welding. 6

Fig 1.1 : Worlds demand for selected constructional materials (Hyla

The laser welding of plastics is the advanced technology of joining of sheets,

LASER PLASTIC WELDING

Transmission laser welding is based on the physical effect in which

(d) simultaneous (synchronous) welding around the perimeter (contour)

At a stationary radiation beam, the components to be welded are moved to

Welding with a template is slightly different. In this welding method, the

and are characterized by high shrinkage of the material and potentially

Table 2.1: Comparison with Bonding

2.2 Lasers used for welding plastics

CO2 lasers are used at a wavelength of 10.6 mm in the infrared range.

characterized by the relatively low efficiency and, in addition to this, the

company, these bags were assembled by manual gas welding.

At the present time, the bags are welded by a robot of Motoman

no chemical additions or adhesives are required. The accuracy, flexibility of

2.4 Joining of dissimilar plastics

regularly updated website www.laserplasticwelding.com maintained by the

Fig 2.4 : Material Compatibility Chart

2.5 Welding of transparent plastics

Nearly two decades old, laser plastic welding is gradually gaining a

contaminate the device.

Laser welding of plastics is a highly specialized technology of joining

Comparison with CO2 arc Welding:

than that caused by the latter.

10.3846/16484142. 2013. 785445

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