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Latest Articles

RLH voted BEST PLACES TO WORK 2019 by Rubber & Plastics News

Posted December 2nd - christina

RLH Employees honored as 2019 Emerging Mfg Leaders

Please join us in congratulating Hannah Snyder and Kasey Moore for being selected as 2019 Emerging Manufacturing Leaders. This award is sponsored by the Broken Arrow Chamber of Commerce and […]

Posted August 27th - christina

Our custom molded plastic product development process

Posted April 23rd - RL Hudson

The Absolute Best Plastic Injection Molded Design Tips and Considerations

Design and molding. When it comes to custom plastic injection molded parts, these two undertakings must be considered together. As a top manufacturer of custom plastic injection molded parts, we […]

Posted March 28th - RL Hudson

Design Areas Prone to Stress Concentration

Posted March 14th - RL Hudson

Plastics Overview: From History to Molding Advice for your Custom Plastic Parts

Plastic — in today’s world, it’s just about everywhere. Items we come into contact with on a daily basis, from smartphones to SmartWater bottles, make plastic ubiquitous. Sure, you may […]

Posted January 28th - RL Hudson

Posted December 28th - RL Hudson

The Long Run Advantage of Designing Custom Plastic Parts for Heavy Trucks with Reliability and Longevity in Mind

On the open road, it’s still endless entertainment for kids traveling in cars to hear heavy trucks blow their air horns as they pass. Do you remember signaling to get […]

Posted November 28th - RL Hudson

Rubber Hose Manufacturing

Posted October 30th - RL Hudson

Rubber Hose Manufacturing: From Anatomy to Applications and Beyond

Whether it’s a roaring truck engine or speeding Ski-doo cutting through fresh powder, you can bet vibration plays an important role when it comes to designing and manufacturing parts for […]

Posted September 26th - RL Hudson

Vibration Control

Posted August 31st - RL Hudson

How A Part Gets Its Start

Whether it’s plastic injection molded parts for marine engines or rubber components for recreational marine applications, the road from part conception to delivery is long and winding. What does it […]

Posted July 31st - RL Hudson

RL Hudson & Company announces acquisition of specialized precision plastic injection molding company, Rapid Production Tooling, Inc.

TULSA, Oklahoma — RL Hudson has completed the acquisition of Colorado based Rapid Production Tooling, Inc., a technically superior injection molding tooling company.  The acquisition will allow RL Hudson to […]

Posted July 2nd - christina

Metal to Plastic Conversions

Posted June 27th - RL Hudson

Concepting for Cost Control: How Design for Manufacturability Creates the Perfect Plastic Part

So you need custom molded plastic parts. Maybe it’s for a marine engine application. Maybe it’s plastic injection molded parts for medium or heavy trucks. Or maybe it’s molded plastic […]

Posted May 31st - RL Hudson

Predicting Product Performance with FEA

FEA helps us shorten the design process and save customers money. From the beginning, engineering has concerned itself with making sure that a product or structure won’t fail in service […]

Posted August 18th - RL Hudson

From Metal to Plastic

There are many instances in which a properly designed plastic component can replace a metal part. Let‘s explore some of the key advantages of “metal–to–plastic conversions.” MORE DESIGN OPTIONS Unlike metals, plastic […]

Posted July 30th - RL Hudson

HUDSON TECHFILES | Computational Fluid Dynamics

Computational fluid dynamics, usually abbreviated as CFD, is a branch of fluid mechanics (the study of fluid flow). The interaction of liquids and gases with surfaces, such as the flow […]

Posted July 1st - RL Hudson

HUDSON TECHFILES | Materials Lab Capabilities

A great rubber product often requires both effective design and an innovative material. RL Hudson has remarkable capabilities in both areas. Our award-wining design engineers continue year-after-year to create new products that […]

Posted July 6th - RL Hudson

Which Plastic Welding Method is Right for You?

Posted July 30th - RL Hudson

 

Plastic welding increases design flexibility, but each method has it’s pros and cons.

The four major plastic welding techniques are hot plate welding, spin welding, vibration welding and ultrasonic welding. The basic principle of all four is simple: heat the surfaces to be bonded until they melt, press them together, and allow the welded joint to cool.

HOT PLATE WELDING This welding method consists of melting the plastic surfaces against a heated metal plate, removing the plate, and pressing the surfaces together. This is one of the oldest techniques. Hot plate welding is the least accurate in terms of control. And it is the slowest. It also generates the most flash. On the plus side, hot plate welding is less affected than other welding methods by dimensional changes, warpage, comonent shape and weld dimensions, making it possible to weld large parts such as tanks. It is also more flexible with respect to part design.

VIBRATION WELDING With vibration welding, the parts to be welded are brought into contact under a controlled load and are vibrated against each other at a controlled amplitude and frequency. The friction heats the surfaces and melts the plastic. After the

vibration stops, the joint is allowed to cool. This technique does not suffer from the potential oxidation problems of hot plate welding, or the weld symmetry limitations of spin welding. It is also a much faster and more accurate process than hot plate welding.

SPIN WELDING As the name implies, this method generates the heat required for melting the surfaces to be welded by spinning one part relative to the other while holding the two parts together under a controlled load. After a specified length of time, the spinning stops and the joint is allowed to cool. In contrast to hot plate welding, this technique requires a relatively small, circular weld zone (which limits design options) but is quicker (10-15 second cycle times).

ULTRASONIC WELDING In ultrasonic welding, the parts are held against each other under load and subjected to high frequency vibration in the load direction. This heats the material by hysteresis. Ultrasonic welding is by far the most accurate and quickest method, with cycle times of only a few seconds, but it is not generally suitable for larger parts. For ultrasonic welding to be successful, the top tooling, called the horn, must contact the parts within a quarter inch of the weld zone. This is known as “near field” welding.

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