Sunday 11 September 2022

What Should be the Minimum Transparency Level Required for Plastic Laser Welding? (Community Question Answered)

 Hello and welcome to a new blog post. Today we discuss a question I received regarding plastic laser welding. The basics of plastic laser welding I described herein this post which includes an introduction training video too. 

What should be the minimum transparency level required for plastic laser welding?

In general, thermoplastics transmit a near-IR beam. The upper plastics layer needs to have transparency for wavelengths between 808 nm – 1064 nm. A minimum transmission rate of 5% is required, however optimal would be 30% and greater (Figure 1). 

That means in an optimum application case,  30% of the laser energy passes through the transparent upper layer and is absorbed by the lower layer. Additives, fillers, pigments, and part thickness can negatively influence the transmissivity of your upper layer. Therefore, careful polymer material selection for laser welding is needed. 

Figure 1: Plastic laser welding - minimum and optimum transparency level of upper layer

Thanks for reading and #findoutaboutplastics

Greetings, 

Herwig 

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Literature: 

[1] https://www.findoutaboutplastics.com/2021/03/joining-techniques-laser-welding-of.html

[2] https://youtu.be/0T_sQwbWFMA

[3] https://www.solvay.com/en/product/amodel-1145-hs-lzt-bk-979

[4] https://www.lpkfusa.com/articles/lq/LPW_GL_Hybrid_Laser_Wedling_Design_Guidelines.pdf

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