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Innovation breeds innovation:
ultra-fast with ultrasonics
The advantages of ultrasonic
welding can be seen in the
joining of plastic sheets and
small or medium-sized
thermoplastic components with
plastic sheets. Due to the short
cycle times (measured in tenths
of a second) and the use of
lower cost materials such as
polypropylene, the process pays
off when producing large batches
for series and mass production.
Important application sectors
include the office products
industry, the automotive supplier
industry, the household goods
industry and packaging
technology.
Highly productive
Using the ultrasonic welding
technology, packaging machines
can seal, weld and separate in
one step and using only one tool.
The welding time itself is a
matter of milliseconds. There are
no warming up and cooling down
times, as ultrasonic welding is a
"cold" welding procedure. This
reduces setting-up times to a
minimum. The versatile process
bonds different material pairs
without adhesives or solvents,
e.g. paper with various types of
plastic sheeting.
<
500
ms
or 30% faster cycle times
are required from the new high-speed
T-gantry in order to get the innovations
of Widmann working properly. Mission
accomplished!
"The quality of the welding
seams in the welding process
is also first-class," says Achim
Bauder, Head of Sales and
Marketing at Widmann
Maschinen GmbH. "Neither
"angel hairs", sharp edges
nor particles are a problem.
What is more, we can document
all the process parameters."
The company has already
been using this technolology
successfully in its fully
automated office products
line for more than 15 years,
producing articles such as
folders, ring-binders and
transparent sleeves.
Ultrasonic welding is fast and precise. As such, it is ideal for combining plastic
components and sheets. In order to enable the systems at Widmann Maschinen
GmbH to make full use of their high speeds, the built-in high-speed T-gantry
carries out the pick & place duties.
Pick & place in 500 ms
When the packaging machine
was developed, the engineers
quickly realised that a Z-axis with
a motor as a feed system was
unable to match the speed of the
welding process. "A cycle time of
1.13 seconds was far too slow,"
explains Bauder. "We needed a
really fast feed system."
Festo came up trumps. A project
team within the Solution
Engineering Center Europe
was already working on the
development of the high-speed
T-gantry. The project team then
incorporated the specifications
and wishes of Widmann. "The
result was a pick & place system
that pleasantly surprised us
with its cycle time of 500 ms,"
recalls Achim Bauder.
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