Dump trucks are widely used in the construction industry to transport aggregates, soil, sand, and plywood. The aging of the workforce in Japan has led to a shortage of construction workers. Therefore, research has been conducted on the automation of the transport and discharge of materials. An important problem in transport operations is that when soil and sand are discharged from a dump truck bed, friction with the bed causes the soil and sand to remain on the bed. Residual sediment on the truck bed leads to lower hauling efficiency and longer cleaning times for the truck bed. Since this problem is also a major obstacle to automation, it is desirable to develop a technology for attaching the low-friction material polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) to steel truck beds.
As a joining technique, As a joining technique, we propose a method using a one-sided seam welding machine. One-sided seam welding allows continuous heat input from the steel plate only. After the heat input is applied, the joint is pressurized with electrodes and rollers, and the softened PTFE penetrates the irregularities formed on the steel plate side by the laser pulse treatment, creating an anchor effect.
In this study, we focused on the method of heating the steel plates to clarify the effect of joining conditions on the joint area. Specifically, the condition of using a wide roller with a larger installation area than that of a normal electrode roller were examined in order to join the steel plate and PTFE over a wide area.
As a result, the joining area of PTFE was increased by using a wide roller. In addition, the number of anchors in the joining area was also increased. In addition, it was found that the joint strength increased with the increase in the number of anchors. These results indicate that the expansion of the heat generation range is effective in increasing the joining area and also contributes to the improvement of the joint strength.