The dataset was acquired during the research project FloWeld, which researches the usage of heatflux sensors in the process of plastics-welding. It consists of 68 weldings with the material PP-H (Polypropylen Homopolymer) and 69 weldings of PVC-U (Polyvinylchlorid unplasticized). The dataset contains timeseries data recorded during the welding process itself as well as features extracted from those timeseries based on domain knowledge. The duration and the temperature of the weldings was varied on purpose throughout the experiment, therefore weldings with different flexural strengths were created with five weldings per experimental point.

The welding process goes as follows: Two plastic cuboids are heated at the end faces by a heating element and then welded together by pressing them against each other. A heat flux sensor is installed in the heating element, the voltage signal of which represents a measure of the heat flux flowing into the right-hand specimen. The welded specimens were then freed from the weld bead using a router and measured to failure in a three-point bend test to determine the weld factor. The weld factor is the ratio of the flexural strength of the welded specimen to the flexural strength of the raw material. If the weld factor is 1, then the strength of the weld is as high as that of the base material. The raw data are available in time series (PARQUET data format), with the weldings having different durations. All timeseries have been sychronized so that they start with the first contact of the plastic body with heating element. Based on expert knowledge, features were extracted from the time series that represent the most important points of the respective time series or describe the course of the curves. These features are explained in more detail in the feature table and the plots in the appendix. All data are combined into a single PARQUET file during preprocessing and the origin of the data is marked with a prefix. The PARQUET file can be represented in tabular form, with each row containing the data for one weld (with a unique META_ID). The time series data are summarized, in which they are deposited as array in a cell. The TIMESERIES_Timestamp[s] column contains the time stamps of the time series belonging to the weld of the respective row.

A more detailed description of the process and the data can be found in the "data description.pdf"

Project 20463N of the research association „Fördergemeinschaft für das Süddeutsche Kunststoff-Zentrum e. V.“ was funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) via the Federation of Industrial Research Associations (AiF) within the framework of the programme for the promotion of joint industrial research on the basis of a resolution of the German Bundestag. The authors would like to thank the funding body for providing the financial resources and all the members of the project-accompanying committee for their active cooperation in the research project.