Since 1989 the PRESSBLOWER Injection Blow Moulding Process is used for the production of Constant Velocity Joint Boots.
World-wide more and more a new topic is coming up: How to make boots for tripod joints? OSSBERGER is aware of the need to find a solution to realise this kind of product in an efficient, technically demanding and economically reasonable way; at the same time the job should be done without losing money and time.
What is OSSBERGER's idea?
In a word: Most likely the most appropriate approach might be to produce the boot by using the familiar and well-known PRESSBLOWER Injection Blow Moulding Process and to combine the boot with an injection moulded trilobe insert by using the laser transmission welding process.
This idea is based on the fact that the automotive industry will be going ahead in demanding high quality. As a consequence there is good reason to consider the PRESSBLOWER Injection Blow Moulding Process for developing trilobe boots, too. So a familiar process can be used with high flexibility because it will be employed for the production of outboard CVJ Boots - as it is done so far - and for trilobe boots. The costs for development and production are well-known and can be assessed easily; at the same time a high degree of flexibility on the shop-floor will be guaranteed.
Injection moulding the trilobe inserts will certainly be a minor issue; very likely this production step will be outsourced anyway.
But it is for sure that there are more options with regard to material grades to be selected for the trilobe insert. So the boot and the trilobe insert can be made of different grades, e.g. different shore hardnesses, to meet specific needs.
The combination of the two components "boot" and "trilobe insert" will then take place in a laser welding equipment. Nowadays there is no doubt that laser welding may be considered a fast and a well-established process. And, of course, it comes up to highest quality demands while it offers process control and quality control options.
Independent of the possible options to weld the two components either offline, e.g. in manual operation, or inline, i.e. in an automised operation directly connected to the PRESSBLOWER machine: We will always talk about a highly flexible solution because there is no need to install the laser welding equipment on a certain spot but it can be used as a mobile unit which is fully disconnected from or directly connected to a particular PRESSBLOWER machine. So there is high flexibility in organising the production floor.
Summarising the above one may state:
- Well-known and controllable processes can be used as separate or combined production steps. So the degree of automation is more or less freely selectable.
- High flexibility is given because the PRESSBLOWER Injection Blow Moulders can be used for the production of standard CVJ Boots as well as for trilobe boots.
- The laser welding equipment offers flexibility because it can be taken as a mobile unit to be connected to a PRESSBLOWER machine wherever it is needed. The production can be organised easily, therefore.
- A greater variety of material grades offers flexibility, too, since materials of e.g. different shore hardnesses can be selected for the boot and for the trilobe insert.
OSSBERGER is in contact with two companies offering laser welding equipments and solutions for this kind of application. These are:
JENOPTIK Automatisierungstechnik GmbH, Konrad-Zuse-Str. 6, 07739 Jena, Germany, Phone: +49 - 3641 - 65-3090 (Mr. Wolfgang Wittenbecher), Fax: +49 - 3641 - 65-3679, Email: wolfgang.wittenbecher@jenoptik.com, Website: www.automation.jenoptik.de
and
LPKF Laser & Electronics AG, Geschäftsbereich Kunststoffschweißen, Gundstr. 15, 91056 Erlangen, Germany, Phone: +49 - 9131 - 61657-10, Fax: +49 - 9131 - 61657-77, Email: info@laserquipment.de, Website: www.laserquipment.de
During an Open House in July 2003 OSSBERGER demonstrated how laser welding of boot and trilobe insert can be performed and how easily high quality can be achieved.
If you have any question, just contact us under pressblower@ossberger.de or call us at ++49 (0) 9141 - 977-0.
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