IN recent times Inexpensive machines for welding plastic films have appeared on the market, but their disadvantage is the implementation of one operation. The author of the homemade product offers to make a multifunctional "sealer" with his own hands. The author also shows several examples of the operation of such a device.
Tools and materials:
-Soldering iron
- Two tips for a soldering iron
-Fluoroplastic tape
-Ruler
-Two self-tapping screws
-PVC film
-File
-A hammer
-Sandpaper
The author purchased the fluoroplastic tape on the market where heating elements are sold. If it is impossible to purchase the tape, it can be replaced with a substrate from self-adhesive wallpaper... The author advises using a soldering iron for 40-60 watts.
Step 1: Making a welding and cutting mandrel
The first mandrel is necessary to seal the edge of the bag and at the same time removes excess film.
The principle of operation is simple. The film is pressed against the surface by the guide. A mandrel inserted into the soldering iron is guided along the guide, which seals the edge of the film and at the same time "cuts off" the excess. In this case, the angle of inclination of the mandrel is 30 degrees, and the rounding of the end face does not allow damaging the template.
Step 2: making the bulkhead welding mandrel
The second mandrel is designed for welding partitions in manufactured products and has a flat working surface. Unlike edge welding, when welding partitions, it is necessary to place a fluoroplastic gasket between the mandrel and the film. Such a mandrel is capable of welding two films of 0.1 mm. Empirically, the author found that with a fluoroplastic spacer thickness of 0.08 mm, for welding a film of 0.1 mm, a working surface of the mandrel equal to 2 mm is required.
Step 3: making the retainer
Not all soldering irons have the ability to replace the tip. The author found a way out by drilling a hole in the bottom of the soldering iron and cutting a thread for the screw.
Step 4: making the rail
In order for the mandrel to move smoothly over the surface, the author used a ruler. On one edge of the ruler, I fixed the fluoroplastic tape with screws. The guide is ready.
The film soldering device is ready. Let's consider several examples of using such a device. According to the author, it is best to solder at a mandrel temperature of 300-350 degrees.
Production of packaging for several types of fasteners
You can, of course, all the fasteners (or others small parts different functionality) to pack in one cell, but it is much more convenient if there is a compartment for each type.
First you need to draw, on a piece of paper, a template. The author marked the edge on the template with a dotted line, the middle with a solid line.
On a hard surface, using adhesive tape, I fixed the template. I put two pieces of film on the template, slightly larger than the template. I installed a baffle mandrel in the soldering iron. I pressed the guide film against the template. Since the inner compartments are first soldered, the guide is installed with the fluoroplastic tape down. Carries out with a mandrel fixed in a soldering iron and heated to the right temperature, along the inner lines of the template.
After the compartments have been formed, it changes the mandrel and seals and trims the side walls of the package.
Fills the compartments with the necessary parts.
Seals off the remaining edges.
All is ready.
Remote control case
It is better to use shrink wrap to make the cover.
Having measured the remote control in the thickest place, I made a template and cut off the film according to the template.
I wrapped the remote control with foil and sealed the edges.
With the help of a hair dryer, I placed the film over the entire surface of the remote control.
The welding of film panels can be done in two ways.
Film bonding method 1
Place one sheet of film on top of another, cover them on top with a newspaper or fluoroplastic film, then slowly slide the edge of an iron, a soldering iron tip or a roller over the junction of the sheets, preheating it to 250 ° C.
Film bonding method 2
You can connect the edges of the panels as follows: clamp them between 2 smooth strips of metal so that the edges of the film protrude from under them by about 1 cm, and melt them with the flame of an alcohol lamp or blowtorch.
For gluing the film, you can also use xylene and trichlorethylene, heated to 70 - 75 ° C. At a temperature of 30 ° C, film panels can be glued with 80% acetic acid. If you have chosen one of the above substances to join the parts of the film, be extremely careful when working with them.
The film can be glued with BF-2 or BF-4 adhesives, having previously treated the surfaces to be joined with a 25% solution of chromic anhydride. For joining polyamide film panels, PK-5 glue is best suited. Be sure to iron the seam obtained after gluing with a warm iron heated to a temperature of 50 - 60 ° C.
More recently, superglue has appeared on the market, which is designed specifically for plastic wrap. It gives a very strong, water-resistant and elastic connection. In addition, it is absolutely odorless, and the compounds are transparent and practically invisible. One 50 ml bottle of glue can be used to glue a seam 15 - 20 m long.
Since superglue contains solvents used in the home, it is recommended to observe the same precautions when working with it as when using household chemical substances... If stored in a sealed package, the shelf life of the glue is not limited. If it dries, it is enough to dilute it with acetone to restore its original properties.
Superglue is also useful for repairing finished film coatings. The way to use it in this case is as follows. Using a brush or stick, apply a thin layer of adhesive around the damaged area from the outside of the film. Let it dry for 2 hours. Then cut out a patch of the required size from the film, attach it to the damaged area and smooth it well. Superglue can even glue old film... However, you should know that it is best to repair the film coating in sunny weather.
If you want to sew film panels with threads, overlap each other. Sew the stitches infrequently. To increase the strength of the seam, make a paper spacer. This method of joining film canvases is most often used if it is necessary to apply a patch to the film covering before it is pulled onto the frame or when an already stretched film breaks. Minor damage to the film can be sealed with adhesive tape.
This problem is often faced by owners of summer cottages, greenhouses, home craftsmen, and even car owners. After failures, people start looking for information on a topic. Is it possible to glue polyethylene at all? In the article you will find the answer to this question.
Polyethylene and its properties
Polyethylene is a very common material with many excellent properties. It is used for insulation, for packaging, for moisture protection, is an excellent electrical insulator, absorbs the most dangerous species radiation - neutrons and therefore is used in protection against them, is completely resistant chemically. This last one sometimes turns from dignity into disadvantage. How to glue polyethylene? Bonding is a chemical and a bit electrical process, oddly enough. The molecules of the substances to be glued are attracted to each other by the unevenness of their electric charges.
That is, there must be such an adhesive in nature (and on the market) that adheres well to polyethylene, and when hardened, firmly holds the glued parts. So, the problem is that it is very difficult to glue polyethylene. Its molecules are electrically very "balanced", hence the extraordinary chemical resistance of the material. And unwillingness to stick to anything. However, the industry has found a way to glue polyethylene. True, not all of this is suitable for the home, but some may come in handy. Here are the suitable methods, selected by the rating of the resulting strength:
- Welding polyethylene
- Weicon Easy-Mix PE-PP glue
- Epoxy adhesive plus oxidizer
Welding polyethylene
The strongest seam is obtained when welding polyethylene. If done correctly. The fact is that polyethylene is molded hot, usually under very high pressure, which reaches hundreds of kilograms per square centimeter. And when it is reheated at atmospheric pressure before melting, it tends to shrink, a little, but this is enough to make it difficult to weld. Two types of welding can be distinguished: welding of film and welding of thick polyethylene (cans, pipes, etc.)
For welding the film, heated objects or a special apparatus for gluing polyethylene, more precisely, welding, are used. It works like this: both layers of the film are pulled along a heated wedge, and then immediately welded with a pair of compressed rollers. At correct selection temperature and pressure of the rollers, an excellent result is obtained - complete seam tightness.
But with a little practice, you can learn to glue polyethylene, even with an electric soldering iron or an iron through paper, so as not to spoil its sole. The clean edges of the film are laid on top of each other and lead through the paper with the edge of the sole of the heated iron.
A soldering iron with a clean tip, when turned on through a voltage regulator, will weld the seam even better without the need for paper. You can also make a clamp on the sting with a small, conveniently shaped metal nozzle. Then the sting can be used for its intended purpose, and the polyethylene will not be stained with solder or carbon deposits from the flux.
Bonding thick polyethylene is more difficult and requires a lot of skill. Most The best way heating: a gas portable burner (it is convenient to work with it), or a hairdryer with a nozzle for a narrow stream of + 250 ° С.
The procedure can be as follows:
- Clean and dry surfaces thoroughly before welding.
- Prepare a polyethylene joint filler. It is best to take a narrow piece of the same material.
- Heat the edges of the seam before melting, let them “settle” a little. But do not get carried away with this process.
- Start adding the additive (see item 2), fusing it evenly on both sides of the seam to a thickness equal to the material.
- Allow the seam to cool completely.
The same method is applicable when deciding how to glue polyethylene foam. The surface of the foamed polyethylene is not very conducive to adhesion, and it is better to weld it carefully.
For another way to weld thick polyethylene, see the video:
Bonding with filled acrylate adhesive
The best adhesive is Weicon Easy-Mix PE-PP. It is specially designed for materials with poor adhesion. Most liquids "stick" very poorly to polyethylene, and are simply squeezed out of the contact area.
But this glue contains the addition of tiny glass beads, which prevents the glue from leaving the gluing site, forming a gap required thickness... Therefore, the gluing surface is sufficient and the glue, when solidified, bonds the surfaces firmly. It's hard to find better than gluing polyethylene.
The surfaces must be thoroughly degreased and dried before gluing. Glue can only be fed from the mixer of the branded packaging. Best temperature to perform work +21 ... + 23 ° С. Liquid glue lasts no more than 2-3 minutes. After applying a layer, you must immediately dock the surfaces. Full readiness of the seam (the highest mechanical strength) for polyethylene will be achieved in a few hours (4-5 according to the experience of those who worked with glue). Exposure of the glue line is carried out at a temperature from +15 to +70 degrees.
Epoxy bonding
This is the most affordable method when it comes to gluing, not welding. Before gluing the polyethylene, you need to prepare the surfaces.
Epoxy glue is not a glue for gluing polyethylene, but, nevertheless, phenol-formaldehyde resin has very decent adhesion to the surface of polyethylene. In this case, you need to proceed as follows:
- Coarse the surfaces with emery cloth, then degrease and dry.
- Treat both surfaces with a 15-25% solution of chromic anhydride or 20-30% potassium dichromate. (Caution, caustic substances and dangerous carcinogens!) You can take another strong oxidizing agent: a strong solution of potassium permanganate. It is not much inferior in efficiency, but much safer. After processing, dry the surfaces again.
- Prepare epoxy glue according to the instructions.
- Apply a thin layer of glue to both surfaces and join together.
- Keep at a temperature of +30 ... + 45 ° C for several hours, but it is better to keep it for a day until cooked.
Conclusion
In case of high strength requirements, of course, welding should be preferred. If the welding is still accompanied by keeping the seam warm at about seventy degrees V for several hours with slow cooling, then the seam will have slight brittleness. The sharp cooling of the joint makes it brittle, especially in cold conditions.
Acrylate glue with a filler does not require mechanical surface preparation, except for unconditional cleaning and degreasing, which must always be done before gluing. You can even try experimenting with other acrylate adhesives by adding an additive in the form of crushed chalk or cement. It is possible that it will be possible to obtain a high-quality and very inexpensive recipe.
Epoxy adhesive is the most difficult to use, and the strength is not the highest. But as a last resort, and this may be the way out.
In construction plastic wrap used mostly as a waterproofing or heat insulator when it comes to film greenhouses. Has polyethylene and certain sound insulation properties, but not enough to use it as an independent sound insulator.
For gluing polyethylene, it is necessary to purchase in advance such glue, which is used for gluing plastic.
Can polyethylene be glued?
When installing waterproofing or greenhouses, it is often necessary to glue several pieces of polyethylene together in order to obtain a film of the desired size. But how to glue the plastic wrap, and is it possible to do it at home?
The question is not as simple as it seems initially. It is also known from the school chemistry course: the higher the polarity of the polymer material, the better it lends itself to gluing. The polyethylene molecule written in chemical symbols is very similar to a long chain, consisting of the same units - CH2-. Such monotony suggests that electric charges they are evenly distributed inside the polyethylene molecule, i.e. it is non-polar. Therefore, polyethylene sticks together very poorly.
Welding of a polymer film: a - using an electric soldering iron; b - with the help of an electric iron runner; c - with an open flame.
Very often for gluing polymer materials adhesive mixtures are used that are prepared from the same materials (or similar to them), dissolved in a suitable solvent. But this will not work with polyethylene - it practically does not dissolve in organic solvents.
Some polymers can be glued just because they have a rough surface. In this case adhesive solution fills in irregularities and, freezing, clings to them, tightly gluing pieces of material together. But this cannot be done with polyethylene, since it has a perfectly smooth surface.
Therefore, if we talk specifically about the gluing process, then it is almost impossible to glue the plastic wrap at home. And in the industrial sector it has never been glued.
But although pieces of polyethylene cannot be glued together, they can be welded, or, more precisely, soldered, which has been successfully done for many years in industry, having developed many methods of such welding. But of this many methods, there are only two that can be applied at home.
Back to the table of contents
Welding polyethylene with a hot object
Welding the film using an electric soldering iron: a - type of seam; b - an electric soldering iron device for welding a film.
The most convenient way to do this is with a metal roller with a heating device inside. But to make such a device at home, you need to have a sufficiently high qualification of an electrician.
Therefore, folk ingenuity has found a completely satisfactory replacement for such an instrument - an ordinary iron. Since the plastic film of different grades melts when different temperatures, then no specific recommendations for temperature regime welding cannot be given.
The heating temperature of the welding iron will have to be determined by trial and error. If the temperature of the iron turns out to be insufficient, the film will not boil, but if the iron is heated too much, the seam will turn out to be “overcooked”, weak, besides, the film on the sides of the seam will easily break. The only thing that can be advised initially is that the iron should not be too hot.
The soldering technology itself is very simple. To make the seam neat and even, it is better to weld on a flat wooden surface... The edges of the film should be placed on this surface with a slight overlap (0.5-1 cm). On this overlap, you need to draw with the spout or edge of the heated iron. The passage should be no more than a second in one place, otherwise you will lose the film.
PVC film can be recognized by the yellowish tint of the roll edge.
But with this method of soldering, there is one very important negative point: the heated plastic film very often sticks to the iron. To prevent this from happening, it is better to cover the polyethylene seam with a thin sheet of cellophane before welding, and then go over it with an iron.
The strength of the seam can be checked by simply pulling the sealed pieces in different sides... If the seam diverges, it means that the quality of the soldering is unsatisfactory, and you need to repeat everything from the very beginning. Some craftsmen perform this soldering not with an iron, but with a red-hot knife blade, claiming that it is more convenient for them. But this is already a matter of taste.
Back to the table of contents
Open flame welding of polyethylene
To verify polyethylene in this way you will need:
- metal or ceramic bars;
- welding tool (it can be gas-burner, blowtorch, spirit lamp, and in the absence of these, you can use a torch or even ordinary matches).
Electric circuit diagram connecting the "iron" to the network: 1 - constant wire-wound resistor; 2 - metal case; 3 - sting-ridge; 4 - textolite handle; 5 - stand.
The edges of the films to be welded must be fixed with metal or ceramic bars (wooden ones are not suitable for this purpose). It is necessary to fix it in such a way that a narrow strip of film (3-5 mm, no more) is visible from under them at the welding site. The bars are needed not only for fixing the film, but mainly in order to quickly remove heat from the films being welded, otherwise they, instead of melting, will burn out entirely.
Then you need to draw along the remaining open edge with a flame. The speed of the flame will also have to be selected empirically, especially since it will be different not only for each grade of polyethylene, but for each tool too. If the operation is performed correctly, then upon its completion a dense roll forms, firmly connecting the two edges of the plastic film.
As an alternative to welding, when setting up greenhouses and greenhouses, two pieces of plastic sheeting can be stitched together. To do this, two pieces of film are overlapped on top of each other. The overlap should be 2-2.5 cm. Then an ordinary medical plaster is glued to the overlap on both sides. He will not hold on well, but this is not scary, the main thing is that the strips of the plaster lie exactly in the place of the overlap one above the other.
Then, over the overlap, make two seams with large stitches. In this case, pieces of film are fastened with stitched threads, and the plaster, having a more durable structure of the material, prevents the threads from tearing the polyethylene. However, this method is not suitable for waterproofing, since the joints will allow moisture to pass through.
It should be noted that both welding methods are suitable only if it is necessary to combine polyethylene with polyethylene.
If it becomes necessary to glue the film to some other material, then you will have to look transparent film from another material, which adheres better, and for which there are special adhesives on sale. Alternatively, it can be a polyvinyl chloride film.
Connect the plastic wrap in the described ways or look for something new, it's up to you. The main thing is not to be afraid to experiment, because if something cannot be done today, this does not mean at all that it cannot be done tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.
How to glue the plastic wrap? This seemingly simple question constantly puzzles many summer residents and gardeners. After all, if you first decided to build yourself a greenhouse, you will have two options - to purchase a ready-made one (the pleasure is not cheap) or to glue the film of the required width.
To facilitate your searches, we present quick guide on how to glue polyethylene film.
First you need to purchase polyethylene in the required amount, at the same time take with a margin, since you need to overlap. Is there plastic wrap?
This means that you have very few tools left, namely: an iron, sheets of paper and preferably two assistants, plus a table or other flat surface.
The welding of the film is carried out according to the following scheme: take the film and overlap the edges to be glued (the width of the overlap should be equal to the width of the used iron with a margin of 5 centimeters).
The prepared paper (you can use a regular newspaper folded in half) is laid slightly wider than the overlap.
We take two small segments and use the "stick-on" method to select optimal temperature, at which the welding of the polyethylene film will be carried out
If this is not done, then when gluing large pieces of film, it may become unusable, melting due to too high an iron temperature or an exceeded holding time.
After selecting the temperature on the table, we make gluing, it is advisable to have two assistants who will not only move the glued film evenly, but also level the finished overlap.
Note to everyone who will glue the plastic wrap - the paper should not be removed immediately from the hot film, in order to avoid tearing.
Let it pause a little and then shoot.
In conclusion, we note that plastic wrap for greenhouses is very easy to stick together at home.
However, if you need to cover the greenhouse big size, then look in hardware stores for a special apparatus for gluing polyethylene and it will become much easier for you to work.
How to glue plastic wrap? This seemingly simple question constantly puzzles many summer residents and gardeners. After all, if you first decided to build yourself a greenhouse, you will have two options - to purchase a ready-made one (the pleasure is not cheap) or to glue the film of the required width.
To facilitate your searches, here's a quick guide on how how to glue the film made of polyethylene. To begin with, you need to purchase polyethylene in the required amount, while taking it with a margin, since you need to overlap. Is there plastic wrap? This means that you have very few tools left, namely: an iron, sheets of paper and preferably two assistants, plus a table or other flat surface.
Film welding is made according to the following scheme: take the film and overlap the edges to be glued (the width of the overlap should be equal to the width of the iron used with a margin of 5 centimeters). The prepared paper (you can use a regular newspaper folded in half) is laid slightly wider than the overlap. We take two small segments and, using the "stick-on" method, select the optimal temperature at which plastic film welding(if this is not done, then when gluing large pieces of film, it may become unusable, melting due to too high an iron temperature or an exceeded holding time). After selecting the temperature on the table, we make gluing, it is advisable to have two assistants who will not only move the glued film evenly, but also level the finished overlap.
Note to everyone who will glue the plastic wrap - the paper should not be removed immediately from the hot film, in order to avoid tearing. Let it pause a little and then shoot.
In conclusion, note that plastic film for greenhouses It sticks together at home very easily, but if you need to cover a large greenhouse, then look in hardware stores for a special machine for gluing polyethylene and it will become much easier for you to work.
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