Today, Myself, @Chris_Wischkowsky & @procterc picked up a donation of a Branson 921 AES Ultrasonic Welding machine. This will be for the new PIG Sig.
Once the expansion of Machine Shop & PIG Sig are completed, This will be put into service.
So you ask what does it do? Well it welds plastics together. Do you want to create welded clamshell packs to put your maker items in just to have those end users curse you? Yep this machine can do that. Or perhaps a diving computer, Weld Widget A to Widget Bā¦ yep it can do that.
I am glad the ultrasonic plastic welder was saved from getting trashed. I mentioned DMS to the lady who was running the sale of the assets of that business. I knew this machine might be of interest to the plastics group.
I got some cool stuff from early on in the sale. Raymond got to grab a bunch of stuff near the end. I think he also mentioned DMS to them.
I could probably take it up to the Dallas Public Library - Heritage lab which was made for this sort of thing. But we donāt have VHS gear that I know of in the space.
Anyone could take it to the public library though and do it.
If itās super important I would mail it to Fort Worth camera for $70 and let them return a DVD and MP4
Acrylic is normally āweldedā by an adhesive aka cement, or via friction of some sort. I donāt think this machine will do acrylic to acrylic. PVC to acrylic may be possible, but I have never tried something like that.
or example, ABS, acrylic, polycarbonate and PVC are amorphous polymers with little or no crystalline structure. These plastics are well suited to ultrasonic welding. Ultrasonic welding of two parts made from the same plastic material will usually obtain the best result. However, in some cases two different thermoplastics can be welded using ultrasonics, for example when the materials are chemically compatible and have similar melting points. *One of the best combinations of plastics for this kind of welding is ABS and acrylic.
Generally ultrasonic welds are butt joints, you can weld Acrylic to Acrylic and Acrylic to ABS. You can also sometime weld Acrylic to an ABS/Poly blend.
The plastic on the edge that you are joining will flow but in a highly controlled fashion so this would leave a seam. One of the edges should be shaped like a wedge to focus the energy.
It will be the nicest possible seam. Also the material will be consistent through the joint making it much stronger compared to glue which will have a higher stiffness along the joint.
It is also 1 second per a joint and no cure time.
The negative side is having to make the top and bottom tool for it depend on the shape of your part. I want to experiment and see if 3D print/Wood carvings can handle this task or if it has to be machined aluminum.
