Laser Surface Pre-Treatment of CFRP for Adhesive Bonding in Consideration of the Absorption Behaviour

The use of carbon fibre-reinforced plastics (CFRP) is growing significantly in all areas of lightweight construction. Thermosets like epoxy still build a major part of deployed matrix material. A suitable joining technology for CFRP is adhesive bonding. However, the bonding performance is well reduced because of contaminations. To achieve full bond-strength, adhesion of the adhesive to the components is essential. One innovative method for surface pre-treatment is laser radiation. Former investigations show that an important parameter is the absorption. As a result of that, a UV laser (wavelength of 355 nm) and a CO2 laser (wavelength of 10600 nm) were used to pre-treat specimens manufactured from 120°C curing epoxy. The focus is to achieve a selective removal of resin without impairing the fibres. Lap-shear specimens have been pre-treated, bonded with an one component epoxy film adhesive and tested. The laser pre-treated specimens achieve the same bond strength as references prepared by manual abrading. Furthermore, the mechanisms of interaction between laser radiation and matrix material as well as fibres are discussed considering the different heat deposit and absorption behaviour of the emitted radiations.