Gas-tight thermally joined metal-thermoplastic connections by pulsed laser surface pre-treatment

André Heckert, Christian Singer, Michael F. Zaeh, Ruediger Daub, Tobias Zeilinger

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

Thermal joining of laser-structured metals and thermoplastics has been proven to deliver a high joint strength. A novel idea is to apply this process onto metal-thermoplastic joints in order to produce gas-tight hybrid connections which can be used in several technical applications. The surface pre-treatment of aluminum by infrared pulsed laser radiation was focused in this study. Depending on different cumulative energies two main surface topologies, stochastic and deterministic groove structures, were manufactured. Consequently, heat conduction joining by infrared laser radiation was used to join the metal with polypropylene. The influence of laser structuring on surface roughness and groove geometry was analyzed by scanning electron and laser scanning microscopy. The wetting of the thermoplastic was investigated by optical microscopy. The gas-tightness was identified by a helium leak test and climate testing was performed to analyze the long-term durability. The results indicate that depending on the surface morphology of the metal, durable gas-tight connections can be created by thermal joining.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1083-1093
Number of pages11
JournalPhysics Procedia
Volume83
DOIs
StatePublished - 2016
Event9th International Conference on Photonic Technologies, LANE 2016 - Furth, Germany
Duration: 19 Sep 201622 Sep 2016

Keywords

  • Thermal joining
  • gas-tight joint
  • laser surface pre-treatment
  • thermoplastic metal hybrids

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