A method for joining primary and secondary members includes providing a primary member, a secondary member and a heating element which is joined to one of the primary and secondary members. The heating element includes an electrically insulating matrix material and an electrically conductive reinforcing clement extending through the matrix material. The method further includes bringing the other of the primary and secondary members and the heating element into engagement and controlling a flow of electrical current in the reinforcing element so as to resistively heat and fuse at least some of the matrix material of the heating element with a matrix material of the other of the primary and secondary members. The method may be used to join a primary member such as a composite tubular and a secondary member such as a component for terminating the composite tubular.

A technique for accurately detecting a temperature of a sealing surface which is not affected by sealing conditions or the like is provided. A seal bar (1) is a rod-shaped seal bar having a sealing surface (11a) and includes a heater (13) and a temperature sensor (14). The heater (13) is provided in a main body of the seal bar (1) and extends in an extending direction (D1) of the main body (11). The temperature sensor (14) is provided at a position between the sealing surface (11a) and the heater (13) in the main body (11) of the seal bar (1) and is inserted into the main body (11) of the seal bar (1) from an end surface (upper end surface (112) or the like) which intersects a long side of the sealing surface (11a).

A film-closure apparatus is provided which is suitable for closing plastic film material using heat. The apparatus comprises a guide path along which at least part of a plastics film material can pass; a drive means for moving the film material along the guide path; and a printed circuit board comprising a circuit substrate having first and second major board surfaces and a perimeter edge surface, and an electrically conductive heating element which is provided on the circuit substrate along at least part of the perimeter edge surface. The electrically conductive heating element is positionable on the guide path to apply heat to the film material thereon.

An automatic bonding apparatus and a method for thermally induced seam bonding of weldable and/or gluable flat flexible material layers with each other which are each configured as a material web, material band and/or material piece and arranged so that they overlap at least partially wherein the bonding is performed by an electrically controlled contact heating arrangement through a heating wedge welding method. A temperature and/or a power of the heating wedge which is formed by a thin folded steel sheet blank is controlled as a function of a relative velocity between the material layers and the automatic bonding apparatus. This is performed so that a thermal energy that is transferred from the heating wedge to the material layers to be glued is kept constant. For this purpose the relative velocity is detected and the power of the heating wedge is automatically adjusted when the relative velocity changes.

An array of resilient floor tiles is assembled into a continuous sheet after being laid down. An array of included, sacrificial resistive wires is buried along the edges of the tiles and is controllably heated in order to cause welding of the edges of tiles across the paths of the wires to neighboring tiles. Subsequently the wires may be used to give the array integral tensile strength. The welded array is provided with greater strength for resisting use, expansive and contractile forces caused by environmental heat and cold and also long-term tile contraction owing to loss of plasticizer as may be seen with PVC-based tiles.

A household vacuum sealer contains: a base, a lid, and a hot-melt sealing element. The base includes a receiving chamber for accommodating a control circuit and a vacuum pump. The base also includes a vacuuming chamber and an accommodation chamber. The hot-melt sealing element includes a holder, a mica slice, a laminated heating layer, the insulated composite layer, and a protective cap. The insulated composite layer includes multiple insulated tape layers. The laminated heating layer includes a high-temperature resistance tapes made of polyimide, a metal resistance tape, two electrical connection films, and two alternating current (AC) electrodes. The mica slice is parallelly fixed on a top of the holder. The laminated heating layer includes the two electrical connections. Furthermore, the protective cap is covered on the insulated composite layer and includes a hollowly elongated zone.