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Heat Staking For Plastic Assembly

Thermal press heat staking, plastic swaging, procedures, parameters, and guideline strategies for plastics assembling. The heat stake process is used in many high technology fields & consumer products manufacturing and offers many benefits.

Direct Contact Press Methods Using Precisely Heated Probes and Pressure

Thermal Press International, has developed a procedure that precisely controls heat and force in providing a high quality, clean, odorless, and safe upset heat stake procedure for plastic assembly of modern thermoplastics. The heat stake process gives you repeatable performance without the high cost & noise of other types of processes.

Heat Stake Processes And Procedures For Staking

The direct contact method of staking applies force to heated metal probes, which contact posts then compress & form a stud head. Used for joining assemblies, metal to plastics, or joining two pieces of any another material. Excellent heatstaked results are possible when the post & material selection are initially configured for a heatstaking application. Precise heat & pressure can reform posts from a wide variety of thermoplastic materials. Common examples include abs, polypropylene, polycarbonate, abs polycarbonate blends, Polypropylene/polycarbonate blends & many other engineering materials (even with as much as 30% filler).

Design Guidelines

Design guidelines required for successful applications require following a few key design parameters. Factors that are essential in obtaining good heatstake results include post diameter, height, & geometry. Working height above mating surface should be approximately one & a half - two times the dia. This will result in a heatstake stud head dia. of approximately 1.5 - 3.0 times post diameter. The selected material and its moldable thickness of the walls will determine typical diameters. For example, diameters can range from 0.04 - 0.09 inches.

Post Types - Flat Profile, Dome, Hollow,
Cross-Shaped, Rosette

Heatstaking posts & stud head geometry can vary as an application dictates. For through-hole fastening applications: maintaining a flat-tipped probe tool for making a stud head into a flat profile is the easiest. Dome-shaped stud heads are aesthetically attractive plus provide a tight heatstaked assembly (typically, tighter than a flat-tipped profile configuration), but require a dome-shaped relief be machined into the tip of a probe.

Cross-shaped post or hollow boss staking can be used where high retention assembly is required. This design is limited because of the existing part constraints. Hollow & cross post designs allow the creation of large posts or thick rib sections of uniform thick wall thickness, while minimizing or eliminating sink marks on the A-side rib surfaces.

Rosette-shaped heat stake probes will flair out a hollow boss leaving the hole available for other operations (i.e. attaching additional components using self-tapping type hardware). A rosette-shaped flair stud head is aesthetically pleasing, plus has high pull strength characteristics (compared with other configurations previously mentioned), but requires more precision in the engineering and manufacturing of a probe.

Side Swaging

Side swaging is used for applications requiring the retention of glass lenses or other components. Side swaging can be successfully accomplished using angled contoured probes (used in forming a post or side-walls) capturing the component by its edge.

Clamping devices can be designed into staking procedures, ensuring proper contact & tightness of the assembled units. When joint clamping devices are used they can virtually eliminate joint gaps caused by warped parts, poorly fitting parts, & operator errors.

Efficient Disassembly and Reworking

Reworking a heat staked component device is performed efficiently & consistently using heatstaking. Disassembly is accomplished by piercing the stud head with a hot pointed-tip probe, re-flowing the stud head material: allowing a quick, clean removal of the stud head. A second set of posts for an additional heatstaking operation or an alternate fastening system can be used in reassembling previously reworked parts.

Conclusion

Plastic Heat Staking is found in most industries and high technology fields that manufacture thermoplastic assemblies. Examples include: consumer electronics, automotive, telecommunications, medical device manufacturers, phone equipment, optical devices, computer manufactures, PCMCIA cards, Memory Modules, Flash Cards, electronic badges, wireless devices, miniature applications, electronic housings, etc.

Using the direct contact press, heat stake method for assemblies is repeatable, economical and safe. The number of posts heat staked at one time is only limited by the configuration design of the parts being assembled.

Heat staking and sealing parts of all shapes & sizes provides an excellent means of plastic assembly. The benefits of being extremely quite, plus the versatility of doing a wide range of high tech applications; from threaded inserts and other metal components, to micro miniature equipment assembly by providing cost effective means of adding or changing tooling, makes the process an excellent return on investment. In addition: minimal wear characteristics of the tooling, low maintenance costs, high equipment reliability, plus value added benefits of being environmentally safe, provide for a long trouble free clean operation.

We can help you today with your engineering, prototype development, and manufacturing needs. See how Thermal Press International can save you dollars on the bottom line while solving your most demanding assembly issues using our direct contact heat staking machines.

Contact us for more plastic hot staking information. Thermal Press International

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