We help people repair plastic
A wide variety of plastics are used on agricultural equipment such as tractors, side-by-sides, UTVs, storage tanks, and harvest totes, just to name a few. All of these plastics are subject to getting bumped and damaged in all sorts of ways, and when they do, they tend to be expensive to replace.
Polyvance’s Agricultural Plastic Welding Kit can be used to repair most of these plastics. This video will show you how to repair a John Deere polycarbonate tractor hood, but you can use the same methods to repair all sorts of plastic parts including sprayer tanks, fuel tanks, and radiator tanks.
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Note: This is a list of the Polyvance products that can be used to make this repair. This list does not include sanders, grinders, or other common tools you will need. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to call technical support at 800-633-3047.
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English Transcript:
A wide variety of plastics are used on agricultural equipment such as tractors, side-by-sides, UTVs, storage tanks, and harvest totes, just to name a few. All of these plastics are subject to getting bumped and damaged in all sorts of ways, and when they do, they tend to be expensive to replace.
Polyvance’s Agricultural Plastic Welding Kit can be used to repair most of these plastics. This video will show you how to repair a John Deere polycarbonate tractor hood, but you can use the same methods to repair all sorts of plastic parts including sprayer tanks, fuel tanks, and radiator tanks.
The 5213 Agricultural Plastic Welding Kit is the most complete system available for repairing damaged plastics on agricultural equipment. The kit includes a high-quality hot air welder which will enable you to make fast, strong welds with the included welding ribbons. A 200 watt airless plastic welder is also included which will allow you to embed stainless steel mesh into the plastic to reinforce your repairs. The airless plastic welder is essential for repairing crosslinked polyethylene tanks. Most importantly, the kit includes seventeen different varieties of welding rods which will match the most common types of plastics used on agricultural equipment. With the Agricultural Plastic Welding Kit from Polyvance, you will be able to repair virtually any meltable plastic you encounter on your agricultural equipment.
To demonstrate how the Agricultural Plastic Welding Kit works, we will take you through a repair of one of the most commonly damaged agricultural plastics – a broken John Deere tractor hood. A similar process would be used on other types of plastic using the matching welding rod.
The first thing to do is to identify the plastic and select the matching welding rod. The easiest way to do this is to find the identification symbol that is commonly molded into the backside of the plastic. In the case of this John Deere hood, the symbol “SLX” is molded in. This is not a common designation – it stands for “Sabic Lexan”. Lexan is a trade name for polycarbonate, and Sabic is the manufacturer of the polycarbonate. Most often you’ll see polycarbonate designated as “PC.” The kit comes with Polyvance’s Book of Plastic Repair, which includes a plastic ID table and flowcharts to help you identify plastics in case you cannot find the ID symbol. In the case of this John Deere hood, we will use the R07 polycarbonate welding rod. This rod is available in clear or green to more closely match the color of the hood.
The first step of any repair is to clean the surface. Clean with 1000 Super Prep plastic cleaner and wipe off. This removes surface contamination that may cause adhesion problems later.
Apply aluminum tape to the front side of the damaged area to align the cracks and hold everything together while the part is welded on the back side. Polyvance’s aluminum tape is about three times thicker than common HVAC tapes, so they hold the damaged parts more securely in place.
Using a die grinder, grind a v-groove along the cracks about halfway through the plastic. Because this hood is cracked next to a mounting boss, we will grind around the base of the boss so we can fillet weld around it. We will also weld across the crack at the edges to reinforce the repair, so we are grinding along the edges as well.
To prepare for welding, turn on the hot air welder and adjust the temperature to 750 degrees Fahrenheit. Set the fan speed at two and let it warm up for a couple of minutes. Plug in the airless welder to warm it up, too.
Using the round green polycarbonate rod, weld around the mounting boss. The most important aspect to hot air welding is to melt both the substrate and the rod at the same time, applying a light downward pressure onto the rod as you make your pass to fuse the two plastics together. Polycarbonate will discolor and bubble slightly as you make your weld – this is normal. After welding with the hot air welder, smooth the weld if necessary with the airless plastic welder.
For the straight cracks, we will use the green polycarbonate ribbon. The ribbon has more contact area with the part, making for a stronger repair. Focus the heat at the point where the rod meets the substrate, making sure to melt both plastics at the same time as you make your pass. At the end of each pass, focus the heat on the rod and gently pull the rod off when it is completely melted. Continue to weld all of the cracks, then along the edges to reinforce the repair where the cracks extend to the edges of the part.
When you are finished welding the backside, allow about ten minutes for the welds to cool completely before continuing your work.
Once the welds are cool, peel the tape off the front side. As you can see, the part has decent strength with just a one-sided weld. However, if both sides are accessible, we recommend that you weld both sides for maximum strength.
Apply aluminum tape to the backside to help support the area as you weld the front side. Grind a v-groove about halfway through the plastic along the cracks on the front side to prepare for welding. We are using a tapered grinding bit here to make a narrow v-groove. This minimizes the width of the repair area and makes refinishing easier.
Weld along the v-grooves with the round polycarbonate welding rod, making sure to focus the heat closely to melt both the substrate and the welding rod at the same time. Apply slight downward pressure on the welding rod so that it fuses with the base material as you make your pass. Finish welding all of the cracks on the front side, then allow the welds to cool completely before finishing.
To finish the repair, sand the welds flush with coarse sandpaper, then continue to sand with progressively finer grits of sandpaper to smooth the area. As you can see, the color match is not perfect, but the part is strong and functional at a fraction of the cost of a new part.
Using the same techniques as we’ve shown on this John Deere hood repair, you can repair a wide variety of plastics, including polyethylene tanks like this sprayer tank. Polyethylene is a very common plastic, normally used on liquid storage containers like fuel tanks. The airless plastic welder can also repair the crosslinked polyethylene tanks which are not meltable. Polypropylene is also a common plastic, as shown on this side-by-side UTV.
The Polyvance 5213 Agricultural Plastic Welding Kit will most likely pay for itself on its very first use, and you’ll have a tool that will provide years and years of good service, repairing all sorts of damaged plastics around your farm. Polyvance has been the leader in plastic welding technology since 1981, and we have the world’s largest variety of plastic welding rods available for immediate shipment when you need it. You can trust Polyvance to be there when you need to repair plastics, with expert assistance available on the phone, on our app, or on our website.
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