GEORGETOWN, KY — Engineers at the TILT Lab at Toyota's assembly plant here have joined in the fight against COVID-19.

With so many ways to formulate plastic to get just the right combination of color, texture, strength and durability, it’s easy to forget how the parts will be assembled. However, if the parts will be assembled with screws, overlooking such parameters as thread style, driver speed and boss design could spell disaster on the assembly line.

Laser welding of plastic parts creates precise, high-quality, particulate-free joints for medical devices, consumer products and other assemblies. However, for the process to work, the laser light must pass through the top part to be absorbed by the bottom part. Welding a clear plastic part to another clear plastic part was not possible.

The shop floor was hopping in mid-January at Dukane Corp.'s headquarters in St. Charles, IL, 35 miles west of Chicago. Technicians were busy assembling, tooling and testing a variety of machines, including the latest product in the company's arsenal of plastics assembly technologies: a hot-gas welding system.

ROYALTON, VT— GW Plastics Inc. has completed a 30,000-square-foot expansion of its manufacturing and technology center here to accommodate the growth in thermoplastic injection molding and medical device contract assembly business.