Memories and Plastics Secrets

I remember as a little girl how my father would use different equipment, soldering irons and welding tools to fix a broken item, from a digital board of a computer, to the back of the old RCA tube televisions and other items. On Saturdays as a treat he would take us to visit his friend's garage. Most girls did not like the smell and environment of a mechanic's and body shop, I did not either, but it was the quality time as a female I would have to enjoy with my father and brothers.  I learn a lot about cars and fell in love with the older models of cars, like Chevy and Ford, which were easily to repair with the right tools and expertise.

So after I finished cleaning the shed, I went on the Internet and wonder where people could purchase items such as welding equipment and other supplies. Surfing around the sites I learn about the process of welding plastic work pieces together. It is a very common process for joining plastics. One company that interested me was http://www.heatstaking.com. They seem to be updated and carried the latest inventory. I check out their events page and thought my father would be in his glory attending the show and learning about the different machines that the experts are using now to build everything that uses plastic and other materials. Also I ponder about the education required for this specialized skill and which is the future and global requirement for this generation and next will be.  

They would have to learn about small to large creation from toys to harbor freight and in-between.

I look around more and came across the Wikipedia page, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_welding,

If I was younger and decided to go back to trade school I would study the knowledge of how to do ultrasonic welding, where a press is used to put the two parts to be assembled under pressure.

Placed in a nest or anvil where the parts are placed and allowing the high frequency vibration to be directed to the interfaces and mould together with clean lines.

An ultrasonic stack composed of a converter or piezoelectric transducer, an optional booster and a sonotrode (US: Horn). All three elements of the stack are specifically tuned to resonate at the same exact ultrasonic frequency (Typically 20, 30, 35 or 40 kHz). I like holding an item in my hands, and look at the smooth lines that flow throughout the item. All done by specialized machines with complex parts and produce an excellent usable product.  It is funny how cleaning out a shed brings about knowledge and I found a site I can recommend to my dad’s friend’s son, my brother-in-law to investigated as he is in need of replacing his welding equipment to meet state requirements.