Abstract

The transport industry is dominated by the challenge on lightening the weight due to environmental restrictions and cost reduction. The use of different materials and multi-material designs provide a great opportunity to develop products capable of meeting this challenge. Critical aspects to be considered in multi-material manufacturing are surface preparation and dissimilar joining. The multi-material joining metal-composite thermoplastic (CTP) is critical for different aspects such as low adhesion due to a low chemical affinity or corrosion problems in the case of the use of carbon fiber reinforced composites. On the other hand, laser texturing is one of the most promising techniques to create surfaces with controlled roughness, manufacturing in a single step and improving metal-CTP adhesion, without the need to use adhesives.

This work, developed within the framework of the European COMMUNION project (GA680567), addresses the optimization of the direct joining process between different high-performance metals and thermoplastic composite cintas. The study deals with surface preparation using laser texturing, the study of different joining strategies and the characterization of joints using different techniques and Single-Lap Shear tests.

Depending on the texture, type of materials or manufacturing strategy, the strength of the joint is improved by 50-200%, achieving structural strength values (> 10MPa) in the optimized joints.