FABRICATIONOFTHERMOPLASTICMATERIALS

PLASTICFORMING/WELDINGTECHNIQUES.
Hot Gas Welding technique and procedures for Thermoplastics materials
Description of hot air plastic welding
Hot gas welding of thermoplastics is a manual welding process. A stream of hot air is
directed towards the joint between the two thermoplastic parts to be joined, where it softens
or melts the polymer.
A filler rod is also heated in the stream of hot gas and this is fed between the two parts.
The fusing together of the thermoplastic parts and the filler rod forms a weld.
The hot gas-welding tool consists of a heater unit to heat the gas, and a nozzle to direct the
gas onto the work pieces. An integral blower provides the air source.
The temperature of the hot gas stream is governed via the electrical supply to the heater and
is typically in the range 200 - 400C.
A range of nozzle shapes is available and selection is based on the type of weld preparation.
Thermoplastic consumable filler rods are generally circular in section although rods with
triangular section are also available in most thermoplastic materials. It is important that the
same base material is used for both the filler rod and the two parts to be joined.
Hot gas welding is a manual process, which is applicable to most thermoplastics, and its
success depends greatly on the skill of the operator. The adjustable welding parameters are
gas type, flow rate and temperature, and the angle of the filler rod to the parts being welded.
Typical gas flow rates are in the range 16-70 litre/minute.
The main advantage of hot gas welding is that the equipment is easily portable. The main
disadvantages of the process are that it is slow and weld quality is operator dependent.
Types of welding
The main types of Hot Gas welding:
Hand Welding or Pendulum Welding
Where the welded joint is to be short, around a small radius or difficult to access. The
welding gun is moved in a pendulum fashion along the joint axis heating both the rod
and joint groove.
Speed Welding
Where the welded joint is to be a long run, a gentle radius and easy to access. The
welding rod is fed through a speed-welding nozzle into a prepared groove. The
nozzle outlet is designed to give the correct proportion of hot gas to the rod and weld
area.

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Extruded rod and sheet are the most commonly used raw materials for the manufacture of
fabricated plastic products. It is of utmost importance when fabricating plastics that the
welding rod and the sheet are of identical material and chemical type.
For example, although it is possible to weld polypropylene homopolymer to polypropylene
random block copolymer, the strength of the weld will be reduced significantly. It is also
important to check the quality of the welding rod prior to use, since air bubbles within the rod
can form during the extrusion process. These will lead to voids in the weld. Welding rods will
typically be either three or four millimetres in diameter.
Welding equipment
The equipment used for hot gas welding consists of an air supply, a handle with sturdy grip,
a heating chamber with temperature control to produce the hot gas and a nozzle where the
heated gas leaves the welding gun in order to heat the plastic rod and substrate. (Fig.3)

Fig.3. Hot gas welding gun

A fan, either incorporated into the welding gun handle or positioned remotely and connected
to the gun, provides the air supply. It is important that it is clean and dry, since dirt and
moisture will contaminate the weld.
The gun temperature is set via a dial on the handle, with some welding guns showing the
temperature of the air stream on a digital read-out also on the handle. It is good practice to
measure the gas temperature consistently using a digital thermometer, for example, with the
thermocouple tip placed 5mm inside the welding gun nozzle.
The front end of the welding gun allows interchangeable welding nozzles to be fitted
depending on the type of welding needed.
Three nozzle types are most commonly used, the tacking nozzle, the round nozzle and the
high-speed nozzle (Fig.4).

Fig.4. Plastic welding nozzles (left to right) tacking nozzle, round nozzle, high-speed nozzle
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If the butt joint is used, an appropriate weld preparation should be added to the edge
of the material before the scraping operation.
Where the material thickness is less than 6mm, the preparation will generally be a
60 single-V chamfer.
If the material thickness is greater than 6mm, then a 60 double-V preparation is
used.
When the joint is in a T configuration, it is not necessary to prepare the edges with a
chamfer, although it is still important to scrape both the substrate materials in the
vicinity of the weld to remove any surface contamination.
Please refer to the materials manufacturers (SYMALIT) addendum welding
instruction sheet in the appendix.
B)

TACKING 2 work pieces together

Once the materials are prepared, the adjacent surfaces are abutted together and
tacked into position using the tacking nozzle.
Tacking should be sufficient to hold all the pieces of the fabrication together prior to
welding.
It should be noted, however, that tacking alone should not be relied upon as the only
method of holding the materials whilst welding.
It is important to use additional clamps for this purpose.
Once the substrates are assembled, the materials can be permanently welded
together using either the round nozzle or speed welding techniques.

C)

Round nozzle welding

In hot gas round nozzle welding, the rod is fed into the joint by hand.
The nozzle is moved in a pendulum motion along the joint and up the welding rod,
heating both the joint and rod as the weld is progressed.
Figure 2 shows round nozzle hot gas welding.

Fig.2. Hot gas round nozzle welding

NOTE:

When using this method it is important to maintain a constant pressure on the

welding rod and a constant welding speed across the substrate.
Round nozzle hot gas welding is generally only used where access to the
joint is difficult, for example, around internal corners.

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Fig.4. Section through

polypropylene weld
showing 'side wash'
IMPORTANT: The welding rod should not display signs of degradation (brown spots) or
overheating. In the case of PVC, overheating is signified by a shiny smooth
surface on the welding rod. In the case of polypropylene, 'splattering' at the
edge of the weld indicates overheating of the material during welding.
F)

EDGE PREPARATION
Between each run, as the joint is filled, a chisel or scraper is used to produce a
small V preparation for the subsequent adjacent weld runs to be positioned in. This is
shown in Fig.5.

Fig.5. Chisel between hot gas

weld runs
The number of runs needed will be determined by the thickness of the substrate
being welded. The weld is finished when the top series of runs is above the surface
of the parent material.
These runs are known as capping runs.
G)

Finishing the WELD

In some circumstances it may be necessary to remove the weld capping runs and
leave a flush surface where an aesthetic finish to the joint is required. These capping
runs can be removed using either a hand grinder or scraper until the weld is flush
with the surface of the substrate material.
This can be done on both sides of the weld.

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Misalignment of all butt welds must not be more than 20% of the total thickness of the plastic
material.
For sheets with fiber backing, the backing adjacent to the weld must be removed to a
distance at least the sheet thickness from the weld bead.
The joints must be beveled to a V shape prior to welding.
Typical bevel angle is 30 to 35 degree for Butt weld.
Typical bevel angle is 15 to 20 deg for T weld.

Acceptance criteria.
The hot gas weld will be visually inspected and must meet the criteria in the attached table.
In general, all welds must be:
1)
Weld Bead:
Shape must be relaxed indicating proper flow of material; elongation or stretching
indicates excessive pressure or unacceptable high welding speed.
No stretch marks or fractures are allowed. These indicate the welding rod is too
cold or excessive pressure or too high speed during welding.
Undercut: Not allowed. This indicates welding rod is too small for area prepared
or stretching of rod during welding.
Bridging: Not allowed. Bridging may be caused by improper temperature or
pressure during starts and stops, relaxing of rod pressure during welding or
improper cleaning of V bevel prior to welding.
Lack of fusion: Not Allowed.
2)
3)

Flow lines evenness: Both sides of weld bead must show continuous flow of molten
material at the sides of the weld bead.
Heat affected zone: The weld bead must not indicate too shiny a surface as the shiny
areas are signs of overheating during welding.

Cap strip welding: (Only if SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS to be stated)

Cap strip welding is same as hot gas welding except that a flat strip of the same
thermoplastic material is applied over the existing weld.
The flat strip has fiber backing impressed on the face to be laminated by FRP.
For cap strip welding, the preparation requires the following procedure:For fabric-backed strip: The fabric must be removed from the base sheet in the weld area at
least as wide as the cap strip.
Excess over-bead must be removed to offer a near flat surface to the cap strip resting over
the original weld bead. Do not over cut the base material and avoid excessive scratching to
the surface
After the base weld, the weld seam must be fully inspected as per hot gas welding
requirement and must be fully spark tested before welding on cap strip.
The cap strip must be flat and not warped, indicating consistent fusion and lack of bridging or
air voids under the strip. The cap strip shall be between 5 to 10mm wide.

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Title: FABRICATION PROCEDURES

DOCUMENT QCC- 001

JULY 2001

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Title: FABRICATION PROCEDURES

2.

Tack weld sheets together as in fig. 5-1, on two sides of sheet ensuring correct
welding temperature for the sheet.

3.

Using a ' V ' scraper, dress weld area to remove burrs and oxidized residue.

4.

Weld sheet at correct temperature, using a compatible weld rod and applying at least
half the sheet thickness to both sides with a minimum of 3mm of welding rod; as in
fig. 5-2.

DOCUMENT QCC- 001

JULY 2001

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Title: FABRICATION PROCEDURES

Repairs carried out Plastic liners must follow the requirements below:
The thermoplastic manufacturer procedures and limitation on re-welding must be
adhered to.
The non-conformities must be classified as reparable as given below.
Repairable non-conformities include:
All weld defects as given in RTP-1 table M14D-1 (shown in earlier pages)
de-bonded areas (FRP)
blisters (FRP)
Incorrect location of nozzles only when the nozzles are located far away so
that the reinforcing pad does not overlap.
Scratches on materials surface may be scrapped out except the thickness of the sheet shall
not become too thin.
Weld defects detected in the final inspection by high voltage spark test when the vessel has
less than 1% of the total weld length plus 300mm.
The following non-conformities shall not be repairable and the vessel shall be scrapped if the
following defects limits are found:
-

Incorrect materials, sheet, filler, rod, strip, etc

Weld defects during final inspection exceeding:
- 2% of the total weld length plus300mm before hydro test.
- 1% of total weld length plus 300mm after hydro test.
- Liner is thinner than lower tolerance on thickness.
Ground strip for spark test (backing strip) omitted or insufficiently conductive.

FINAL INSPECTION REQUIREMENT for PLASTIC FABRICATION PROCESS:

For plastic fabrication, the following shall be verified during the final inspection:
welders qualification records for welders working on the vessel
Current weld map (fabrication drawing) and sheet placement.
High voltage spark test records
Materials log fro all materials used
Final Visual Inspection shall include:
-

Final witness of last high voltage spark test performed after the hydro test.
Visually check the internal surfaces of the liner and the exterior gel coated
surface.
All visual requirements for surface defects in the materials inspection procedures
(Table 14B-4 and Table 14E-1 on acceptance of lining visual inspection shall
form the basis of visual inspection.
For FRP laminates, ASTM D2563 Standard Practice for Classifying Visual
Defects in Glass Reinforced Plastic Laminate parts, shall be referred to.

DOCUMENT QCC- 001

JULY 2001

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