Methods for Welding HDPE Sheets

What is HDPE welding?

It is a common fabrication technique used for obtaining smaller items including; water tanks, chemical tanks, plumbing fitting, and heat exchange.

How much temperature is required for Welding HDPE Sheets?

It takes around approximately 518°F/ 270°C to weld HDPE. The regulator is settled around 5-1/4 to 5-1/2 and the rheostat at 5. Like PP, HDPE is able to weld at 572°F/300°C.

Why Is Welding Important?

Welding is an economical method for joining plastic sheets such as HDPE, PVC, PP, and PVDF. Welded applications include chemical tanks, cabinets, and wet benches for the semiconductor industry.

The HDPE sheet suppliers should prefer those HDPE sheets which are either made of; extrusion, butt, or hot gas welding methods.

What are the best methods for welding HDPE Sheets?

There are three main methods for welding HDPE sheet

·        Extrusion welding

Extrusion welding is the major finishing technique for HDPE and other polyolefin geomembrane materials. It is a procedure in which a bead of molten plastic is used to weld thermoplastic geomembrane materials.

Welding pole is drawn into a smaller than expected handheld plastic extruder, plasticized, and constrained out of the extruder against the parts being joined, which are relaxed with a fly of hot air to enable attaching to happen.

·        Hot Gas welding

It is another most sought after, yet common HDPE welding method that is used for manufacturing items such as; heat exchanger, plumbing fitting, water, and chemical tanks. Also known as hot air welding, it’s a plastic welding technique, which is equivalent to metals, although specific techniques are different.

Two sheets of plastic are warmed by means of a hot gas or a warming component and after that moved together. This is a brisk welding process and can be performed consistently. 

A specially designed heat gun (hot air welder) is used during the process which produces a jet of hot air which softens the two sections to be joined and a plastic filler bar, which must all be of the same or a fundamentally the same as plastic.

·  Speed tip welding

The plastic welder just like soldering iron in terms of (wattage and appearance) is fitted with a feed tube in this method for plastic weld rod. The speed tip heats the substrate and the rod, while in the meantime it presses the liquid weld bar into position.

A globule of diminished plastic is laid into the joint, and the parts and weld pole combine. With a few kinds of plastic, for example, polypropylene, the liquefied welding pole must be "blended" with the semi-dissolved base material being created or repaired.

To Conclude

All welding methods shared above, have been in practice for the last five decades by professional plastic manufacturers and fabricators internationally. 

Among all these methods, speed tip welding has proved to be a much faster welding method and with training can be utilized as a part of tight corners.

A form of the speed tip "weapon" is basically a fastening iron with a wide, level tip that can be utilized to dissolve the weld joint and filler material to make a bond.