Welding apparatus (10; 30) having a safety feature comprising: two electrodes (11, 12; 21, 22), whereof at least one of said two electrodes is movably arranged in relation to the other electrode. The electrodes are in non-contact with each other and define a gap (13) in which an object (14) provided with an electrically non-conductive surface to be sealed may be inserted. The welding apparatus comprises an actuator (15; 25) configured to move at least one electrode when activated to squeeze the object, a detector (16; 26) configured to determine a clamping force when the inserted object (14) is squeezed between the electrodes, a distance sensor (17; 23) configured to measure the distance between the electrodes. There is also a conductance sensor (24) configured to measure the conductivity of an object located between the electrodes (11, 12; 21,22) when the object (14) is squeezed, and optionally a position sensor (19b) configured to detect the position of the object (14) inserted between the electrodes. The welding apparatus further comprises a processor configured to process the input from at least one of the detector (16; 26), the distance sensor (17; 23) and the conductance sensor (24) to provide an output that indicates if there is a blood bag tube inserted between electrodes, or if it is a foreign object.

Welding apparatus (10; 30) having a safety feature comprising: two electrodes (11, 12; 21, 22), whereof at least one of said two electrodes is movably arranged in relation to the other electrode. The electrodes are in non-contact with each other and define a gap (13) in which an object (14) provided with an electrically non-conductive surface to be sealed may be inserted. The welding apparatus comprises an actuator (15; 25) configured to move at least one electrode when activated to squeeze the object, a detector (16; 26) configured to determine a clamping force when the inserted object (14) is squeezed between the electrodes, a distance sensor (17; 23) configured to measure the distance between the electrodes. There is also a conductance sensor (24) configured to measure the conductivity of an object located between the electrodes (11, 12; 21,22) when the object (14) is squeezed, and optionally a position sensor (19b) configured to detect the position of the object (14) inserted between the electrodes. The welding apparatus further comprises a processor configured to process the input from at least one of the detector (16; 26), the distance sensor (17; 23) and the conductance sensor (24) to provide an output that indicates if there is a blood bag tube inserted between electrodes, or if it is a foreign object.

The invention relates to a method for producing a butt-welded joint between tube segments of a tube made of a weldable plastic material using a welding machine and to a welding machine (10), two tube segments each being held by a clamping apparatus (11) of a welding device (21) of the welding machine, welding contact surfaces of tube end cross sections of the tube segments being fused by means of a heating element (22) of the welding device and the welding contact surfaces subsequently being pressed against each other by a handling apparatus (18) of the welding device using a joining pressure to form a butt-welded seam connecting the tube segments to each other in a joining plane, the welding device being controlled by a control device of the welding machine, a data model of a tube system having at least one tube and a plurality of butt-welded joints being stored in the control device of the welding device, the data model comprising at least one object dataset representing the corresponding butt-welded joint and each having attributes, the control device detecting at least one weld parameter of the welding device as another attribute for the corresponding butt-welded joint and adding this weld parameter to the object dataset.

A sealing device for sealing a sealing foil onto a top surface of a primary packaging shell for a contact lens. The sealing device comprises a shell support and a sealing head comprising a contact surface facing downwardly. The sealing device comprises at least one linear actuator for performing a vertical relative movement of the shell support and the sealing head to press the sealing foil against the top surface of the primary packaging shell. The sealing device comprises a foil holder for holding the sealing foil in a vertical gap between the contact surface of the sealing head and the top surface of the primary packaging shell. The sealing foil is sealed to the top surface of the primary packaging shell when the shell support and the sealing head move towards each other.