When thinking of welding, it’s typical to think of two panes of steel or copper, being welded together with a torch and a welding machine on a piece of pipe or a replacement plate on an industrial tank or silo.
However, welding isn’t just a service companies have to employ for metallic materials – flexible materials, like plastic and Mylar, also have to be welded at times. This is where the services of a dielectric welding machine come to shine.
But before you choose a reputable service like Polo Custom Products to help you fix and construct your products, it’s important to know what the different kinds of dielectric welding are, and which best fit your needs.
What is Dielectric Welding?
Dielectric welding is alternatively known as RF welding as per The Welding Institute, and that stands for radio frequency welding. An alternative name for dielectric welding or curing is microwave heating, which utilizes the same technology – high-frequency electromagnetic radiation – to heat up and weld a select number of polar thermoplastic materials.
Thermoplastic materials are any polymer materials that are cured and capable of being heated or melted into a liquid shape – like most plastics – in contrast to thermosetting plastics which epoxy, which harden into a material with a much higher melting point than its original components as per Reference.com.
RF welding works best on PVC (polyvinylchloride, or vinyl) and polyurethane plastics, as well as common polymers like nylon, PET and EVA – however, for these, RF power is needed in conjunction to preheated welding bars. Certain plastics are not suitable for welding, chief among them: PTFE, polycarbonate, polystyrene, and polypropylene.
How Does it Help You?
RF welding’s usage in the machining and modification of common plastics like nylon, PVC and polyolefin makes it critical to several professional and industry usages – and yours could be among them.