A flow rate sensor includes: a housing made from a resin material and having a bottom base portion and a side wall, at least one surface side of the housing being open; a cover made from a resin material, covering the one surface side of the housing, welded to an upper surface of the side wall of the housing, and defining, with the bottom base portion and the side wall of the housing, an auxiliary passage within which a gas to be measured flows that is taken in from a main passage; and a flow rate detection unit disposed within the auxiliary passage. A protruding portion for height control is provided to one of the housing and the cover at least in a vicinity of the side wall around the flow rate detection unit so as to suppress sinking in of the cover during welding.

A new ultrasonic aided laser joining method (UAL) for bonding dissimilar materials has been developed. The method is capable of eliminating the laser-induced bubbles at the bonding faces and to improve the joint strength over that of the conventional laser-assisted metal and plastic joining method (LAMP). Some experiments on joining titanium to polyethylene terephthalate have been conducted to show the superiority of UAL over LAMP. The results showed that the joint strength, measured in terms of failure load, was significantly increased when ultrasonic vibration was employed during laser joining. For the LAMP joined specimens, fracture normally occurred at the metal-plastic interface, whereas for the UAL joined specimens, fracture normally occurred in the parent plastic part. The improvement in joint strength is mainly due to the elimination of pores in the resolidified plastic. In addition, ultrasound vibration promotes chemical bonding between the plastic and metal parts, and this is supported by the XPS results.

An optical wheel assembly for a laser transmission welding apparatus includes a double-convex optical lens having two spherical surfaces that are joined by a polished side surface extending circumferentially around the lens. Each of the two spherical surfaces has a known spherical diameter. The optical lens is disposed between a pair of dish cup holders, each having a spherical concave surface with the known spherical diameter and engaging the spherical surfaces of the lens. Each dish cup holder has an axial projection extending away from a side of the dish cup holder that is opposite the spherical concave surface. The axial projections are received within respective bearings that are mounted within a housing. The bearings allow the dish cup holders and the optical lens to rotate while pressure is being applied to plastic workpieces during laser transmission welding thereof.

To achieve universal welding of thermoplastic workpiece parts with simple equipment, an infrared light transmission welding method is disclosed in which simple polychromatic, incoherent infrared light is generated by a simple infrared light source and is directed through a first workpiece part to a weld point for the purposes of connection to a second workpiece part. In particular, the infrared light is directed through a transparent bracing element.

An electric valve can be further miniaturized while reducing the number of manufacturing man-hours. The electric valve contains: a motor including a stator member and a rotor member that displace a valve body, and a housing for accommodating the motor. The housing is formed by joining a heat generation portion formed of a first material to a heat receiving portion formed of a second material. The light transmittance in the first material is lower than the light transmittance in the second material.

This manufacturing method for a fluid control apparatus, in which the flow of a fluid is controlled by bringing a diaphragm valve element into contact with or separating the same from a valve seat, is characterized in that: the diaphragm valve element is a joint body of a seat member making contact with the valve seat and a body member; the joint body is formed by cutting a material joint body obtained by depositing a seat member material which is a material for the seat member and a body member material which is a material for the body member, and the deposition is performed over a wider range than a contact surface between the seat member and the body member of the joint body, on the contact surface between the seat member material and the body member material of the material joint body.

A pressing device for a laser welding apparatus includes an arm member with opposite mounting and pressing ends. A pressing pad at the pressing end has an opening for allowing a laser beam to irradiate a workpiece assembly that is being pressed by the pressing device. The mounting end has a mounting structure for detachably securing the pressing device to the laser welding apparatus. The arm member is shaped to position the opening at a known fixed distance from a laser source of the laser welding apparatus. The pressing pad has a pressing surface on a workpiece-facing side thereof for applying a joining force to the workpiece assembly at a welding location. At least one of the size, shape and smoothness of the pressing surface allows a sliding-contact movement of the pressing surface along a surface of the workpiece assembly during application of the pressing force.

This invention describes a 3-layer insulation material comprising a first fabric layer, a second fabric layer and a third fluted intermediate fabric layer between the first and the second fabric layers, the fluted intermediate fabric layer being attached alternately to the first and the second fabric layer with longitudinal seams forming longitudinal channels for the insulation material having individual insulation material bundle inside each longitudinal channel. Also disclosed are a method and an arrangement for producing the same.

A first resin member including a first contact surface and formed of laser beam-transmissive resin and a second resin member including a second contact surface, which contacts the first contact surface, and formed of laser beam-absorbing resin are arranged one upon the other. A laser welding apparatus includes a clamping unit abutting the second resin member and applying clamping force to the second resin member, a laser emitter emitting laser beam, a laser controller controlling output of the laser beam, a displacement sensor measuring displacement of the second contact surface in stacking direction of the resin members, and a control unit controlling the clamping unit to adjust the clamping force corresponding to displacement amount of the second contact surface continuously or intermittently obtained from the displacement sensor.

A stretch-blown plastic container, includes a container body which encloses a filling volume with a container bottom; a container neck which adjoins an opposite end of the container body, having a container opening and an integrated handle region, the handle region being hollow and joined to the filling volume which is enclosed by the container body; and between the handle region and the container body, a through opening recessed and bordered over its entire periphery by wall parts of the container body and of the handle region which have been welded to one another.