Due to its advantages, joining two plastic parts by laser is an established joining process in a wide variety of applications. Until now, the necessary equipment required a relatively high investment. With the Evosys EvoWeld Mini, EVOSYS has now developed a system to noticeably facilitate access to the state-of-the-art and clean technology of laser plastic welding.
With the Evosys EvoWeld Mini, investment costs have been reduced to a fraction of a highly automated system. At the same time, the benchtop unit offers all the advantages of laser welding, making it possible to set up new applications or material tests and produce parts in a very short time. Thus, first samples can be produced in order to evaluate the result at a very early stage of product development and to optimize the assembly to perfection very efficiently.
But there are also advantages for the further course of the project. Valuable knowledge about the product itself and the manufacturing process is already gathered during the development phase. This benefits the entire further development process of an assembly and specific questions can be tested, optimized and answered very quickly and sustainably, long before a design freeze occurs, for example. In addition, the parts produced in this way can also be presented and touched – this is certainly a much stronger sales argument than a part shown purely in CAD or in presentations. The Evosys EvoWeld Mini thus provides an entry into laser plastic welding for all those who have not yet had the opportunity to use this advanced technology themselves.
Design and Specifications
One of the main aspects in the development of the Evosys EvoWeld Mini was the consideration of accommodating all the highly complex technology as compactly as possible in a table system. In the housing, with dimensions of only 320mm wide, 530mm high and 660mm deep, there is sufficient space for all the necessary components, and parts up to a size of approx. 100x100mm² can be welded. Clamping modules are available in various predefined force ranges, or can be provided by the customer.
The operator gains access to the welding area via the manually opened hood, which opens upwards and can be closed again with minimum effort to ensure laser-safe operating status.
The rear, covered area of the machine contains all components required for operation, including the air-cooled laser source and the deflection unit to flexibly position and highly dynamically move the laser beam. At the rear is the machine’s main switch, the power supply, a USB port and connections for a pneumatic clamping system, which is already completely routed inside the machine and carried through to the welding area.
Even an extraction unit has been thought of. During tests, the material can sometimes overheat, resulting in harmful outgassing. An external extraction unit can be connected to the housing roof, which is fed through the machine to the welding area and can effectively extract the gases produced there, so that there are no risks for the operator.
Quasi-simultaneous welding made easy
The aim in developing the Evosys EvoWeld Mini was also to enable as many process variants as possible in this system, especially the quasi-simultaneous welding process. This variant, which is the most common and efficient in practice, also permits a measurable setting movement between the joining partners and thus process monitoring.
In addition to the laser and optical setup, a control system and software specially adapted for laser welding are used. The control system corresponds to industrial purposes and specifications and also contains, for example, safety-relevant components. The software in turn contains the sequence control for the machine operation and also the control of the laser components.
The machine is parameterized via the in-house EvoLaP software. Here, the welding contour is set and welding parameters defined. For process variants with set travel, even the weld travel-time curve is displayed graphically, which is very helpful when setting up and optimizing a welding application.
Setting up and configuring the interaction of all these components in such a way that all legal and customer-specific specifications ultimately result in a machine that is suitable for series production normally involves a comparatively high level of effort and investment. At this point, Evosys Laser GmbH has gathered its decades of experience in laser plastic welding and packed it into a cost-effective machine for everyone in the Evosys EvoWeld Mini.
Application examples are numerous and can be found in many different industries. Whether from the medical sector, such as syringe nozzles or insulin dispensers, trackers for detecting pets in the consumer sector, or a number of classic assemblies from the automotive sector, such as rear view cameras together with the associated drive units, actuators, vehicle keys and many other applications, there is space on the Evosys EvoWeld Mini. In addition to initial tests, sample parts can also be produced on the system in order to create customer samples, build parts for tests and validations, or simply to provide the company’s own sales department with demonstration material in order to acquire new customers.
Flexibility was also a basic requirement for the Evosys EvoWeld Mini. The table system can be operated manually and is still compatible with more highly automated machines from the Evosys product portfolio. After all, one of the use cases is to develop a new product with the Evosys EvoWeld Mini as well as to weld the first samples in order to later be able to transfer exactly this welding process from the EvoWeld Mini to a fully automated Evosys machine, for example. This is the only way to ensure that the entire know-how from the development phase is also transferred to series production to a maximum extent and can be used there.
This makes the Evosys EvoWeld Mini an all-round successful package and opens up the world of quasi-simultaneous welding of plastic components to you, too. Do you have a similar project and want to implement it? Evosys engineers will be happy to discuss your task with you in order to create the optimal configuration of the device.
Ask us for a personal consultation, in which we take up your individual concerns and show you solutions. You can reach us by phone at +49 9131 – 4088 – 1029 (Mr. Holger Aldebert) or by e-mail at sales@evosys-laser.com. The Evosys Group is headquartered in Erlangen, Germany, and is represented at many locations around the world to provide fast and efficient local support. We are looking forward to your request.
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