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Aircraft ComponentsDiffusion bonding was used by Carville to produce Carvillex and to manufacture intrumentation components for the aerospace industry.
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Diffusion Bonded ManifoldCarville produced the world's first diffusion bonded manifold in 1980. These manifolds have become an industry standard and are used in clinical chemistry and medical diagnostic applications.
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Diffusion Bonded ManifoldsAcrylic is a clean inert material. Diffusion bonding acrylic manifolds ensures that the maniold remains inert and is ideally suited to medical applications.
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HAB BondingThis new technique was developed by Carville to support evolving customer requirements. HAB can be used to bond injection moulded components.
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Tensil Cement jointsNot all applications are suited to Carville's HAB or diffusion bonding. When required, Carville use conventional methods such as tensil cements.

Bonding of Plastics

Carville use four principal methods for the bonding of Acrylic and other engineering grade plastics:


Diffusion Bonding

This is a process developed by Carville in the 1960’s. The process was originally developed for the production of avionic instrumentation panels for the aerospace industry.

The diffusion bonding process allows plastic materials to be joined without the use of solvents or adhesives. The plastic material is joined at a molecular level which ensures that any future thermal expansion or contraction of the material will not have a detrimental effect.

Carville further developed the diffusion bonding process in the 1980’s. A joint development project with a leading medical diagnostic company resulted in the manufacture of the worlds first diffusion bonded medical manifold for use in a clinical diagnostic (haematology) application.

Diffusion bonding is a process that joins plastic component parts without the use of solvents or cements. As there are no bonding agents used, diffusion bonding is ideal for medical applications where the use of a solvent or cement would be considered a possible contaminant. Diffusion bonded joints are invisible to the naked eye and are very strong.


HAB Bonding

HAB is a new bonding process developed by Carville in 2009.

As the fluidic application demands within the medical sector have increased, chemistries have become more aggressive and sample sizes have reduced. These changes have resulted in a demand for smaller micro fluidic style devices that can be produced in alternative engineering grade materials.

Carville have worked with clinical diagnostic companies on the development of this new manufacturing technique. Carville HAB offers. 

  -  Smaller track sizes down to 150 um
  -  Improved alignment
  -  Minimal material stress
  -  A selection of engineering plastics including:
          Acrylic (PMMA)
          Polycarbonate (PC)
          Polysulphone (PSU)
          Polyetherimide (PEI)

Carville have supplied both prototype and production HAB manifolds to customers operating in Europe Asia and theUSA.


Plastic Cementing

Polymerising cements can be used to produce strong, optically clear joints that are cosmetically attractive. It is important that plastics joined with polymerising cements are suitably heat treated to remove any internal material stress. Failure to heat treat may result in solvent induced stress crazing or cracking of the material.


Solvent Cementing

This is a low cost method with a limited number of applications. Plastic materials may be joined by applying a suitable solvent and then clamping the materials together. It is imperative that the materials to be joined are correctly heat-treated. Failure to heat treat may result in solvent induced stress crazing or cracking of the material.