Bonding / Laser Welding

Bonding is process of using heat or other adhesives to fuse two layers of material or multiple structures together. It works though the magic of fusible interfacings, fabric materials that contain adhesives that "glue" fabrics together when heated. Basically, conductive fabrics and interfacing can be cut in the same patterns and fused, to create functional systems and circuits such as these examples below. A key point to make, highlighted in the work below, is to ensure that your interfacing has an open-enough mesh for any conductive layers to make contact with one another, if that is the property you are looking for

Bonding via Cutting and Ironing:

Rachel Freire and Sophia Bruckner making Fused Capacitor Wheel
http://www.rachelfreire.com/embodisuit
https://www.instructables.com/Capacitive-Wheel-Fabric-Sensor/

Afroditi Psarra Fused Fractal Antennae
http://afroditipsarra.com/index.php?/on-going/fractal-antennae/
https://github.com/afrdt/Fractal-Antennae

Loomia Custom Bonded Parts
https://loomia.com/

Bonding via Laser Welding

Laser welding and/or other forms of drawing the a hot/fusing head have been useful in complementary areas such as creating paper products and or inflatable pouches.

While some have taking to attaching a soldering iron to their 3D printer arm, others, like Che-Wei Wang and Taylor Levy have created computerized systems for bonding materials together.

Some folks, such as Dries Verbuggen are experimenting with using an unfocused laser to both cut and bond materials in one session on a laser cutter
https://wikifactory.com/+ctc/stories/laser-welding-and-cutting-synthetic-non-woven-fabrics