Who has used Hotmelts

[mjh368]

Anyone out there had sucess with PP hotmelts? Whats the skinny? Do the have temperature and chemical resistance?
Are they expensive? Do the beat hand welding?

Basically i make Polypro(hand weld) and PVC(glue) boxes out of 1/4 and 1/2 sheet. What takes me a week in PVC takes 1.5-2 in PP, i dont like this.

 

[kenvlach]

I've seen hotmelt welding under inert gas give high quality, fast, full-depth welds in 1" thick PP tanks being fabricated at La Habra Welding. Their website isn't informative, but you can contact them:

http://www.lhwinc.com/

Not sure how you are doing hand welding (with the thin rod and a special hot air gun?), but the problem I had was always limited heating rate and air oxidation of the PP. The oxidized PP is mechanically weaker & less corrosion resistant than that welded under nitrogen.

For more comments, please post links to 1) your present equipment, and 2) hotmelt welder under consideration.

P.S. You can bend thin sheet, < 0.5" PP or 0.25" PVC, 4 feet wide using strip heaters. Much better than hand welding!

 

[mjh368]

Here is a link to my products

http://www.chemcut.net

Yes, i currently use wegner hot air hand welders w/ PP weld rod. the box is assembled and then many smaller boxes/pipes/braces are welded onto the larger box. this is why we use hand welders,short welds in hard to reach places. I am not currently looking at any specific hotmelt i have just read about them. I bend smaller peices, but main body demensions are large.

Chemical resistance is number one concern, do these hotmets have good res..