anyone know anything about Plastic fusion welding

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I just picked up a George Fischer 250SE plastic welder.    I know nothing about it, anyone got ANYTHING other than the obvious its a plastic fusion welder?Vantage 500's LN-25's, VI-400's, cobramatics, Miller migs, synch 350 LX, Powcon inverters, XMT's, 250 Ton Acurrpress 12' brake, 1/4" 10' Atlantic shear,Koikie plasma table W/ esab plasmas. marvel & hyd-mech saws, pirrana & metal muncher punches.
Reply:Originally Posted by DualieAnyone know anything about plastic fusion welding?
Reply:I have seen some of it done. Basically you have to know the type of plastic you are trying to weld and then use the same type plastic rod to melt into the repair. The weldor I saw melted some of the plastic tank I was having repaired, said it smelled like ----- and then used that type rod to repair the tank. Each type of weldable plastic has a distinct smell that is used to determine the type if it is not marked. Now a lot of the plastic parts are marked with recycle stamp that tells type of plastic.  The welder is an electric hollow heating element that air is blown through to pick up the heat and carry that heat to the rod and repair area and melt the two together. The rate of air flow is what determines the temp that you are welding at and must be adjusted to melt but not burn the work.
Reply:The machine you have is an electrofusion machine.Basically the fittings have a resistance and the machine applies a current for a specific amount of time and the wire gets hot and fuses the fitting to the pipe.Usually the fittings come with a barcode that you scan with the machine so it knows what settings to use.The operator basically all he has to do is scrape the pipe and clean it well and make sure it is not moved during welding and for a certain period afterwards.We use this a lot here in low pressure (<4 bar) natural gas network which are from PE (Polyethylene) as well as water networks.I do not know if your machine is for PE or PP as GF makes those too for the chemical industry.If you want to know more about electrofusion do a google search, you will find lots of info.
Reply:when we had a job that required electrofusion, we generally leased a machine for the project duration through the product manufacturer..... usually GSR plastics. Very simple process.I just sold my Central Plastics PE butt fusion welder( would fuse up to 6") and still have a smaller socket fusion PE welder that I wuold love to unload.Last edited by tekstar; 03-16-2014 at 06:03 PM.
Reply:Originally Posted by SuperArcI think that topic should be asked in the "Glueing"  forum.     Sorry, couldn't resist.
Reply:I have a sealy hot air plastic welder with a speed self feeding tip.  I bought it for one job that probably would take a pro a couple hours.  It took me a week,  It looks very simple, but I never mastered it.  It is easy to overheat, to do it right doesn't feel right if your'e a metal welder.  It feels like a cold weld.  I've seen people do it, making huge HDPE tanks.  Their welds were very strong, as strong as the material.  Pierce makes 3000+ gallon water tender fire engines that way.  They say the secret is clean, dry hot air and clean filler material that is the same as the parent material.  I found it very frustrating. I haven't heard of the machine your'e talking about.
Reply:I took a tour of Vintage Air (the car air conditioning place) where they put together a lot of plastic housings.  It looked to me like they mixed their scrap plastic with acetone or something and used it like glue out of a pressure gun.  I have never gotten a satisfactory repair using the little hot air plastic torches like they sell at Harbor Freight.Miller Syncrowave 350Millermatic 252/ 30A spoolgunMiller Bobcat 225g w/ 3545 spoolgunLincoln PowerArc4000Lincoln 175 Mig  Lincoln 135 Mig Everlast 250EX TigCentury ac/dc 230 amp stickVictor O/AHypertherm 1000 plasma
Reply:Originally Posted by blackbartI have a sealy hot air plastic welder with a speed self feeding tip.  I bought it for one job that probably would take a pro a couple hours.  It took me a week,  It looks very simple, but I never mastered it.  It is easy to overheat, to do it right doesn't feel right if your'e a metal welder.  It feels like a cold weld.  I've seen people do it, making huge HDPE tanks.  Their welds were very strong, as strong as the material.  Pierce makes 3000+ gallon water tender fire engines that way.  They say the secret is clean, dry hot air and clean filler material that is the same as the parent material.  I found it very frustrating. I haven't heard of the machine your'e talking about.
Reply:I haven't tried it with nitrogen.  I have watched them make tanks for fire engines and they barely heat the rod and parent material, you can actually see the round rod in the finished product.  Totally backwards thinking compared to weldind metal.  Yet those tanks handle sloshing, hammering water going code three on bumpy roads.
Reply:i think its for PP.  It seems pretty trick, its got the built in barcode scanner and all that.    I thought i was bidding on something else when i bought it,  anyone know what its worth? I did some PP butt welding of 4" a long time ago with a rental machine.   But the place i rented it from is long outta buisnessVantage 500's LN-25's, VI-400's, cobramatics, Miller migs, synch 350 LX, Powcon inverters, XMT's, 250 Ton Acurrpress 12' brake, 1/4" 10' Atlantic shear,Koikie plasma table W/ esab plasmas. marvel & hyd-mech saws, pirrana & metal muncher punches.