Heat Staking Caulking

Heat Staking Caulking – Heat Staking or Caulking is a process used to join two plastic or metal components together without welding or gluing the parts together.

The two components will come together with one component having the male part, which is called a stake, and the other component having the female part, which is simply a hole for the stake to go through. These holes and stakes can also be used as location features to ensure the two components come together in the correct position.

Once the parts have been assembled and the stakes are through the holes, the two components are ready for the pulse heat staking/caulking process. This process involves a pulse heater with heater tip shaped into a dome.

The bonding head will lower the heater tip onto the stake. The pulse heater will heat the tip to the correct temperature to soften the stake. Once the stake starts to soften, the force applied by the bonding head will compress the stake into a perfectly formed dome. The pulse heater will then cycle through to the cooling part of the heating cycle, and the bonding head will ascend. The diameter of the dome will be larger than the diameter of the hole which the stake entered through, ensuring the two components are now joined together.