Milling machine heat staking inserts?

Hello guys,

I have a very oddball request. I'm currently injection molding parts that will require me to heat stake roughly 32k inserts total in plastic parts after they're molded. I was wondering if there was any way anyone has used or knows of a way to use a milling machine spindle to heat and press these inserts in? Each part has about 6 inserts that need placed, I figured if I could automate it as much as possible using our old, worn out bridgeport cnc knee mill, that would be better than sitting there all day pressing in by hand. It would be nice to be able to set the inserts in the holes, hit start and the machine goes to each hole and presses them in.

I'm assuming I will need to find a soldering type iron with a shank that will fit in an ER collet to go in my 30 taper er collets. or maybe I'll have to build one...

Any suggestions?

Thanks

The normal way of doing that is with an ultrasonic welder. With a properly designed head you could do all 6 pins at once. The BP could be used as the basic machine to move the head up & down. I have seen ultrasonic presses with both ball screws and air cylinders for head pressure.