Investigation of hybrid fusion bonds under varying manufacturing and operating procedures

Abstract The desire to apply fiber reinforced plastics (FRP) in large batch production processes due to the ongoing challenge to build more efficient lightweight structures poses new demands for process technologies. One of many challenges is the request for short cycle times during production of FRP parts. One possibility to meet this demand is to use thermoplastic FRP which enables the decoupling of part production and material consolidation. In addition and based on the application of metallic components to so called hybrid parts, the parts costs can be significantly reduced. Furthermore, due to their fusibility thermoplastic materials enable the integration of process steps into the part production for example the joining process with the metallic component. To realize sufficient part strengths, a pre-treatment of the metal surface becomes necessary. In this investigation a laser pre-treatment is used which showed comparable results to a structural adhesive bond. The presented investigations focus on the manufacturing process and the operating limits of fusion bonds built with a laboratory setup (lap-shear specimens). The tests will conduct the sensitivity of this fusion bonding process to different temperatures, dwelling times and applied pressures. Another focus is the durability of the fusion bonds under varying operating temperatures.