Abstract
- Hybrid material compounds made of a metallic and a fiber reinforced component have a great potential for industrial applications, especially for ultra-lightweight structures. Advanced joining methods are necessary to bond these dissimilar material groups. The weakest point within a joined metallic and fiber-reinforced polymeric (FRP) structure is the interface between them. With this focus we introduce the idea of thermal sprayed coatings to generate an integration zone for joining a hybrid structure, consisting of a metal and a glass-fiber-reinforced thermoplastic polymer. This method provides a full-surface bonding without using adhesives. The low-stress application minimizes the risk for distortion, which is a general problem when mechanical surface activation processes are used. Furthermore, with the choice of appropriate coating materials, it is possible to maintain a high bonding strength of the hybrid interface, even if the bulk metallic component is varied. In our study, a glass-fiber reinforced polyamide 6 (PA6) with a thickness of 2 mm was joined to two different bulk metallic components: an unalloyed structural steel (S235) and an aluminum wrought alloy (AA6063). Joining was conducted at 285 °C, which was above the melting temper-ature of PA6. Axial-loading adhesion tests were conducted in order to evaluate the bonding strength. Com-pared to conventionally grit blasted surfaces, the application of an intermediate bond coat by thermal spray-ing leads to a significant increase in joining strength