Joining methods for plastics and plastic composites: An overview

Joining of plastics and plastic composites is becoming important because of the emerging structural applications of these materials. While providing an overview of all joining methods, this paper emphasizes the welding of thermoplastic materials. Different welding techniques, together with their main advantages and disadvantages, are briefly described. A selective bibliography, in which the 259 references have been arranged chronologically for each technology type, provides a guide to the literature.