Patent ID: 8372235

Claim:
A method for welding together plastic parts to form an assembly or part of an assembly comprising: positioning an as-molded first plastic part including a tube or pipe portion in a first tooling structure by pushing the first plastic part through an first interference region in the first tooling structure to a snap-nested position in which the part is held in place by interference with the interference region, said tube or pipe portion including a tubular body portion extending axially from a first end of the tubular body portion, the as-molded first plastic part further including a transverse tubular portion extending from an intermediate portion of the tubular body portion transverse to the tubular body portion; positioning a second plastic part including a tube or pipe portion in a second tooling structure by pushing the second plastic part through a second interference region in the second tooling structure to a snap-nested position in which the part is held in place by interference with the second interference region, such that the respective tube or pipe portions of the first and second plastic parts are axially aligned and facing each other in a separated start position with a gap between facing ends of the respective tube portions; positioning a radiant heating element in the gap without physically contacting the respective tube or pipe portions to heat the facing ends to a melted state; removing the radiant heating element from the gap; providing relative motion between the first and second tooling structures along an axis to respective weld positions to bring the facing ends of the respective first and second plastic parts together, leaving the first and second tooling structures in said weld positions until the parts have cooled to weld the first and second parts at said respective ends to form an assembly.