The present invention is directed to the use of an improved hydrocarbon adsorption system for the treatment of evaporative emissions from a motor vehicle. More specifically, the system includes one or more hydrocarbon adsorption elements being housed within a frame, the frame being permanently affixed within the air intake housing of engine.

A framed stencil for surface mount technology (SMT) is provided. The frame assembly includes a frame member and a binding insert. The frame member includes an inner perimeter portion and an outer perimeter portion that cooperates with the inner perimeter portion to define an elongated channel. The outer perimeter portion includes a first cantilever portion that extends over the elongated channel and towards the inner perimeter portion. The binding insert is configured for releasable insertion into the elongated channel. The binding insert includes a base and a tongue. The base configured to interface with a mesh substrate to facilitate coupling therebetween. The tongue is coupled to the base and extends substantially horizontally from the base. When the binding insert is inserted into the elongated channel, the tongue extending beneath the first cantilever portion to facilitate retention of the binding insert to the frame member. Methods are also provided.

A method of joining workpieces includes the steps of bringing a first workpiece and a second workpiece together, induction heating a susceptor material, and pressing the workpieces together. Each workpiece may include a thermoplastic material, and the workpieces are brought together at a joint interface so that a protrusion of the first workpiece is aligned with a receptacle of the second workpiece. The susceptor material is in contact with the thermoplastic material of the first workpiece during heating such that the thermoplastic material of the first workpiece softens. The step of pressing is performed while the thermoplastic material of the first workpiece is softened, thereby reshaping the first workpiece where the susceptor material is in contact with the thermoplastic material of the first workpiece. The protrusion is deformed to form an interlock with the receptacle at the joint interface.

This disclosure details exemplary battery pack designs for use in electrified vehicles or other electrified components. An exemplary battery pack may include a heat exchanger plate assembly having a metallic plate and a polymeric plate that are joined together to establish a coolant circuit therebetween. The metallic plate or the polymeric plate may include a protrusion that extends through an opening of the other of the metallic plate or the polymeric plate. The protrusion may either be crimped or heat staked to a surface surrounding the opening in order to join together the metallic plate and the polymeric plate of the heat exchanger plate assembly.

A microfluidic flow cell for carrying out an analysis, having a substrate of synthetic material, which has cavities for the formation of channel structures and chambers, wherein the cavities are closed on one side of the substrate by a film adhesively bonded or welded to the substrate, and having a housing component that is produced with a hard and a soft component, which, on the side of the substrate facing away from the film, is connected to the substrate, completing functional sections respectively fulfilling the function of the flow cell. The housing component is formed as a multifunctional part completing more than two functional sections.

The present disclosure can provide for an ultrasonic welding method for a pair of workpieces. The method can include first pressing an ultrasonic welding stack against a first workpiece in the pair so that the first workpiece comes into contact with a second workpiece in the pair. The method can then provide for initiating a weld phase by outputting energy from the ultrasonic welding stack to the first workpiece. The method can provide for monitoring, with at least one sensor, a sensed parameter. The sensed parameter can be, for example, weld force and/or weld force rate of change. The method can provide for determining whether the sensed parameter has reached a predetermined level. Based on determining that the sensed parameter has reached the predetermined level, the method can provide for ending the weld phase.

A method of bonding a second object to a first object includes: providing the first object having a thermoplastic liquefiable material in a solid state; providing the second object having a surface portion that has a coupling structure with an undercut, so that the second object is capable of making a positive-fit connection with the first object; pressing the second object against the first object with a tool that is in physical contact with a coupling-in structure of the second object while mechanical vibrations are coupled into the tool; continuing to press and couple vibrations into the tool until a flow portion of the thermoplastic material of the first object is liquefied and flows into the coupling structures of the second object; and letting the thermoplastic material re-solidify to yield a positive-fit connection between the first and second objects by the re-solidified flow portion interpenetrating the coupling structures.

A preform can be made from two different materials that do not bond together by a bi-injection process, using the same mold. First an outer preform can be fashioned, then an inner preform molded through a center hole in the bottom of the outer preform, and the preforms connected. Inner/outer preform materials can be different, e.g., PET/polyolefin or polyamide, or same, e.g., PET/PET. To prevent mutual bonding during molding of the second, a non-stick coating can be sprayed on a surface portion of the first preform prior to molding the second. Manufacturing order can be either outer/inner, or inner/outer, and the non-stick coating sprayed on the inside/outside of the preform first molded.

Provided is a thermal caulking method of melting, at one time, a plurality of bosses 33 of a second member 30 protruding toward an inner circumferential surface of a conical hollow portion 11 of a first member 10 while being fitted to a plurality of holes 132 provided in the inner circumferential surface of the hollow portion 11 of the first member 10 having the substantially conical hollow portion 11 so that the plurality of bosses are joined to the first member 10, in which the plurality of bosses 33 are melted at one time by using a heat chip 51 having a continuous shape in the circumferential direction of the hollow portion 11 along the inner circumferential surface and are joined to the first member 10 while the adjacent melted bosses 33 are connected to each other.

The present invention is directed to the use of all improve,d hydrocarbon adsorption system for the treatment of evaporative emissions from a motor vehicle. More specifically, the system includes one or more hydrocarbon adsorption elements being housed within a frame, the frame being permanently affixed within the air intake housing of engine.