Welding of polyethylene films

Work by Michele Valsecchi and his colleagues at Columbia University, Universite de Strasbourg, and Sandia National Laboratories.

Large-scale molecular dynamics simulations were used to investigate what happens at the molecular level when two polyethylene films are thermally welded. The simulations reveal how molecular orientation and entanglements evolve as the two polymer surfaces interdiffuse, and how these residual structures influence subsequent crystallization.