‘Revolutionary’ Heat-Staking Process for Auto Interior Trim, Lighting Electronics, Medical Devices

What is said to be a ‘revolutionary’ heat staking technology that allows users to rapidly heat and cool a punch to stake plastic from Extol,  Zeeland, Mich., is gaining increasing interest for use in electronics, lighting, automotive interior trim, medical devices and several other applications. It can be used with all thermoplastics and its small size allows it to fit into tight spaces that are difficult for other technologies.  

The now patented nanoSTAKE uses a proprietary Smart Respond heating technology with an embedded temperature sensor for true closed-loop process control to rapidly heat and cool a punch to stake plastic. The low‑current (1.5 A), high‑performance heater heats the punch to a programmed melt temperature in seconds and forms the boss into a stake. Once the punch reaches the correct height, it rapidly cools to a programmed release temperature and retracts with no sticking. The whole process can happen in less than 5 seconds and can stake bosses as small as 0.5 mm. Additional features include exporting data, validation mode, teach mode, and extensive quality monitoring.

According to Extol, nanoSTAKE competes with other plastic heat staking processes such as ultrasonic welding, hot punch, hot air, and Extol’s InfraStake and is competitively priced with both ultrasonic units and InfraStake. Extol is finding that this technology is being sought by many market sectors, with the strongest interest currently coming from the automotive interior trim sector (photo shows nanoSTAKE being used to stake LED lighting to a bezel) as well as lighting sectors.

An optional upgrade offered in the DataPLUS network communication. With dataPlus activated, the system controller makes nanoSTAKE process data available to a PLC over an ethernet connection. Available data includes system information, process data, and fault notifications.