Ultrasonics for Leisure & Adventure
Leisure & Adventure – Ultrasonic Welding application
Here is an application we were involved with to supply technology specific to a “Leisure/Adventure” ultrasonic welding requirement.
While typical welding applications are to be found primarily in areas such as the automotive, packing or textile industries, as well as in medical technology, items for the leisure and adventure sector are not one of the classic applications.
This case concerns a baseball cap with integrated, solar-powered LEDs which act as headlamps in the dark – a patented product from the company 2cLight.
Welding with High Tech Sensitive Electronics:
A built-in electronics board takes over the energy management and control of the different light modes. The board is permanently welded into the twopart visor made from PPC material, making it dust- and water-proof. In addition to qualitative requirements, the welded seam is also subject to visual specifications. No bubbles
should be visible on the seam on the transparent sun visor and the plastic should not be stained a milky colour. Alternative welding processes such as hot plate-, vibration- or laser technology were rejected after the evaluation phase. It was particularly the low investment and operational costs as well as the short welding cycle times of 3-4 seconds which tipped the balance.
Rinco Ultrasonic Tooling:
One very important aspect is the coordination between the ultrasonic welding machine and the ultrasonic tooling, the so called horn and anvil. The anvil ensures the correct and precise placing of the two sun visor halves with the sensitive electronics board. The height difference (concave shape) of the sun visor was a particular challenge, as the acoustic laws of tool design set certain limits. The parts are co-injected with PPC being the primary material, and a soft-touch thermoplastic rubber being the secondary material. This soft-touch material adjacent to the welding seam, which has a design function, made the construction and manufacture of the two tool forms even more complex.
The Welding Machine – Rinco Ultrasonic Welder Dynamic 3000
This servo pneumatic-controlled 20kHz welding press with process-optimised force profiling and integrated speed and force control is suitable for medium and large-scale welding operations and for textile die cutters. View the Dynamic 3000 Welder here
Documents
Video of the Solar Light Cap
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