Edison Welding Institute, Inc.

Marc A St John

Robert A Grimm

Kevin M Hartke

David A Grewell

A plastic pallet assembly is formed from plastic lumber by melting sections of runners and cross members and contacting them to join said runners and said cross members to form a pallet. A machine having an assembly table, cross members for supporting and moving pallet runners in a vertical direction, a support table for a pallet cross member, hot plates moveable in a vertical direction and in a horizontal direction for insertion between the runners and the cross member, and a force bar moveable in a vertical direction for applying a force to the runners, hot plates and cross member. A process for producing a plastic lumber pallet in which the runners are placed on a support bar and raised in a vertical direction, a cross member is placed on a support table, hot plates are inserted between the runners and cross member, pressure is applied by means of a force bar and a portion of the runners and cross member is melted after which the hot plate is withdrawn by raising the runners and hot plate and the molten section of the runners and cross member are brought in contact to join the runners and cross member.

Plastic lumber pallets

A process for obtaining long, continuous, thermoplastic welds on large structures. A series of tabs are used in pairs and especially in alternating, overlapping pairs to obtain resistance heating of a strip material placed in the bond line. The resistance of the tabs is less than that of the strip material. Conducting braid-tubes afford continuous welding when the bond line is curved. Alternatively, an electromagnetic field is used to take advantage of the induction heating. A wide susceptor is used to weld a current conducting substrate while avoiding bulk heating of the substrate. The unexpected property of current-conducting braid-tube susceptors, in which induction heating takes place at the center rather than at the edges of a flattened braid-tube susceptor, is used to obtain long continuous curved welds.

Growing community of inventors

Reynoldsburg, OH, United States of America

Marc A St John