Assumptions for Modeling of the Hot Plate Welding Process Considering the Automatic Welding Machine Design

Abstract

Drive and conveyor belts are widely used in processing and mining industries. One of their types, which are often used in light-duty applications, are the belts with round cross-section and several millimeters in diameter. They are often made of thermoplastic elastomers, in particular ofweldable polyurethane. Their production process requires to carry out the operation of joining the belt ends to obtain a closed loop. This operation is often carried out by means of butt welding utilizing the hot plate method. This process is often performed by hand using simple tools. Authors took an effort to design the automatic welding machine, which can make durable joints of this type automatically. The design works comprise control system configuration which calls for identifying the technological parameters of the process, being the reason for undertaking the research works on the hot plate welding process. The main aim of this activity was to formulate of the mathematical model of the hot plate welding of round drive belts which is necessary to identify the process parameters and the correlations between them. In the paper, the assumptions for the hot plate welding process modeling were presented. During their formulating, technical conditions were taken into consideration resulting from some of the characteristics observed in an automatic welding device prototype which had been implemented for industry production.