Thermoplastic Weld Has Ergonomic and Environmental Benefits

Thermoplastic coupling is a patented welding process that is used to join thermoplastic parts. At the drill press, during a connector design brainstorming session, an engineer at Lucent Technologies' Bell Laboratories inserted a plastic rod into a cavity that was slightly too small in its cross section. He hit it with a hammer once to make it fit, and found when he tried to strike it a second time, it wouldn't budge. The explanation was simple: a single stroke converts kinetic energy into thermal energy when a shaft is rammed into a cavity slightly smaller in diameter than the shaft. Trapped frictional heat causes the two to weld permanently together.