Adjustable Air Flow is important when plastic welding

You may have noticed that Polyvance puts an emphasis on the adjustable flow control on our nitrogen plastic welders. All of our welders, including our low-cost 6049-C, have adjustable flow. Why is this such a big deal?

We have just released a video showing exactly why adjustable flow is important.

Here are some key takeaways from the video:

Most bumpers can be welded on your baseline flow setting (about 12 liters per minute)

Using a high flow setting on a thinner plastic substrate will cause problems. If you overheat the substrate, it will lose its structure.

When welding thick plastics, you can turn up the flow and temperature to make a fast, strong repair. Thick plastics are easier to weld since you don’t have to worry about distortion of the base material.

In the video, we do a strength test on two different tabs. The first tab was welded with proper flow. The second tab was welded with flow that was too high. The first tab didn't break; the whole flange was ripped off of the bumper. The second tab broke. Let's take a closer look at the last frame before the breaks:

The tab that was welded correctly. (Click for larger images.)

You can clearly see that the red line is just over the 24 KG mark. This means that we put about 53 pounds of force on this weld and it still didn't break. The whole flange was pulled off instead.

The tab that was welded incorrectly. (Click for larger images.)

You can clearly see that the red line is right around the 21 KG mark. This means that we put about 46 pounds of force on this weld before it broke.

This test shows that welding with the correct flow can make quite a difference in strength!

With Polyvance's nitrogen plastic welders, you can control of the flow to suit the thickness of the plastic.