Effect of Additive Manufactured Metallic Structures on Laser-Based Thermal Joining of Thermoplastic Metal Hybrids

• Published in: Key Engineering Materials 2015-07, Vol.651-653, p.777-782
• Main Authors: Amend, Philipp, Scheitler, Chritian, Hentschel, Oliver, Gorunov, Andrey Igorevich, Schmidt, Michael
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Additives; Automation; Automotive components; Joining; Lasers; Polyamide resins; Strength; Thermoplastic resins
• ISSN: 1013-9826; 1662-9795; 1662-9795
• DOI: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.651-653.777

In future, the use of tailored multi material parts consisting of thermoplastics and metals will increase especially in the field of automotive applications based on the pursuit of lightweight design. This provides completely new demands on automated manufacturing because dissimilar materials have to be joined reliably. A promising approach is the thermal joining by laser radiation which enables a non-contact, automated and reproducible production of thermoplastic metal hybrids. Thereby, laser radiation heats the metal and through heat conduction the thermoplastic melts and wets the metal surface. The surface topography of the metallic joining partner plays an important role for the strength of the hybrid joint. In this paper, a novel approach for the fast and flexible fabrication of part-adapted surface structures by means of laser cladding with powder injection is investigated. The aim of the performed experiments is to find out how the geometry and arrangement of additive manufactured line-like metallic structures affect the strength of the dissimilar joint. Therefore, the height and width of the structures are varied. The structure geometries are investigated by microscopy of cross-sections and laser-scanning microscope measurements. As substrate and powder material stainless steel is used. Finally, the metallic samples are joined with polyamide 12 by means of laser radiation and mechanically analyzed by tensile shear tests.