The seal plate assembly of this invention includes a base plate, an insulator pad positioned on the base plate, an electric heater pad positioned on the insulator pad and a pair of seal plates positioned on the electric heater pad, all of which have registering vacuum openings formed therein. The base plate, insulator pad, heater pad and seal plates are bolted together. The seal plates have spaced-apart cavities formed therein. A support plate is positioned in each of the cavities with each of the support plates having a length and width which is less than the length and width of the respective cavity to create a vacuum space at the perimeter of the support plates. The support plates are spaced above the bottom of the cavities.

The invention relates to a welding tool and a method for pulse welding films of plastic for medical packs formed as bags. The invention generally provides for the film material that has been plastified during welding, and is consequently free-flowing, to be specifically displaced by increasing the sealing surface area. The displaced film material can for instance compensate for dimensional and form tolerances. At the same time, however, the strength of the welded seam region, which adjoins the interior space of the bag, is not reduced.

A method of forming shaped articles by welding.

A sealing device for sealing a lid material to sealing areas of a blister web comprises a first, heated sealing tool and a second sealing tool arranged opposite each other and movable relative to each other. A first intermediate element of elastic material is attached to the first sealing tool on a side facing the second sealing tool, and a second intermediate element of thermally-insulating material is attached to the second sealing tool on a side facing the first sealing tool. The first and second sealing tools are movable relative to each other between an opened position and a closed position, in which at least sections of the first intermediate element and of the second intermediate element exert pressure on each other. In the closed sealing position, the first intermediate element rests on the lid material and the second intermediate element rests on lands of the blister web.

A compression load distributor includes a support layer and a heat spreading layer. The support layer includes a flexible carrier configured to distribute a load from a compression load applying device. The heat spreading layer is coupled to and carried on the support layer, the heat spreading layer comprising a heat sink configured to transfer heat throughout the compression load distributor. The heat sink is thermally conductive and electrically non-conductive.

The invention relates to a welding tool and to a method for pulse welding of plastic films for medical packs formed as bags. In general, the invention provides that the film material which is plastified during welding and thus free-flowing is specifically displaced into a deepened, edge-side inner region of the sealing surface by increasing the sealing surface area. The film material accumulated in the recess leads to an increase in the film thickness in the inner region (25i) of the weld seam (6, 7, 8). As a result, the mechanical stability of the medical pack formed as a bag can be improved.

The present invention relates to a welding head (10) for fastening an element made of plastic material to one or more flexible webs (2, 3) made of plastic material, of which a flexible container (1) is composed. The head (10) includes a body made of electrically and/or thermally conductive material having a work surface (15) that is provided for being pressed, during the welding operation, against an element of the unit to be joined. The invention is characterized in that the work surface (15) includes a series of grooves or concave formations (16) that are essentially uniformly distributed on the surface of the work surface (15).

A glass-polymer laminate structure includes a flexible glass substrate having a thickness of no more than about 0.3 mm. A polymer layer is laminated to a surface of the flexible glass substrate having a coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) that is at least about 2 times a CTE of the flexible glass substrate. The polymer layer is laminated to the surface of the flexible glass substrate after thermally expanding the polymer layer to provide the flexible glass substrate with an in-plane compressive stress of at least about 30 MPa along a thickness of the flexible glass substrate.

A sealing device generally includes a rotatable support cylinder having an outer, circumferential surface and a heating element disposed about such surface and secured thereto such that the heating element rotates therewith. The heating element is coiled about the outer surface of the cylinder in the form of an overlapping helical pattern. Juxtaposed film plies may be sealed together by bringing the sealing device into rotational contact with the juxtaposed film plies and heating the heating element to a temperature sufficient to cause the film plies to seal together.

A glass-polymer laminate structure includes a flexible glass substrate having a thickness of no more than about 0.3 mm. A polymer layer is laminated to a surface of the flexible glass substrate having a coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) that is at least about 2 times a CTE of the flexible glass substrate. The polymer layer is laminated to the surface of the flexible glass substrate after thermally expanding the polymer layer to provide the flexible glass substrate with an in-plane compressive stress of at least about 30 MPa along a thickness of the flexible glass substrate.