1st ICAI 2020

International Conference on Automotive Industry 2020

Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic

Advanced Joining Techniques for Hybrid Parts Made of Metal and Bio-based Plastics Gunther Göbel 1 , Annett Klotzbach 2 , Philipp Zink 3 , Jens Standfuß 4 University of Applied Sciences Dresden (HTW) 1,3 Mechanical Engineering Faculty Friedrich-List-Platz 1, Dresden, 01069 Germany Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology Dresden (IWS) 2,3,4 Department Joining Winterbergstrasse 28, Dresden, 01277 Germany e-mail: Gunther.Goebel@htw-dresden.de 1 , Annett.Klotzbach@iws.fraunhofer.de 2 , Philipp.Zink@htw-dresden.de 3 , Jens.Standfuss@iws.fraunhofer.de 4 Abstract The market of bio-based and bio-degradable plastics is growing due to governmental regulations and society needs. However, implementation of bio-plastics into standard production processes poses challenges, often caused by limited understanding of its process behaviour. This also applies to automotive applications. To improve acceptance a comparative study about joining of polylactic acid (PLA) to metal was done. The paper discusses joint strength behaviour of adhesive bonding, ultrasonic joining, and thermal direct joining using laser and induction heat sources. As a reference, petrochemical plastics like polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) were joined too. The results show the influence of the joining process parameters to the transferable load. With optimized parameters the joint strength of multi-material connections using bio-plastics are comparable to the reference materials. These new results facilitate the production of complex hybrid parts made of bio-plastics and metal. Keywords: adhesive bonding, automobile, bio-based plastics, hybrid parts, thermal joining JEL Classification: L62, L65, O33, Q55 1. Introduction While light-weight-construction designs principles rely on mixed designs of polymer materials and metals for many years, bio-materials are not yet common in many industrial applications. In light of current global ecological challenges, a shift from petro-chemical polymers to bio-based polymers would be beneficial for a number of reasons. Modern trends like ubiquitous computing call for small and widely distributed sensors, interfaces and processing units, for example as wearables. As their recycling according to standards cannot be guaranteed, reduction of metals and bio-degradability is another strong reason for the use of bio-compatible plastics in appliances.

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