a p p l i c a t i o n r e p o r t

Laser joining process

yields metal-
thermoplastic
hybrid parts
ADHESIVE BONDING AND LASER REMOTE

TECHNOLOGY JOIN PLASTIC TO METAL

ANNETT KLOTZBACH

L
oad-adapted hybrid con-
nections made of metals
and thermoplastics have
become more important
as they are used for sev-
eral industrial applica-
tions, especially in the area
of lightweight construction. For efficient process
chains and specific load cases, an optimized pre-
FIGURE 1. Laser surface
treatment and joining technology, as well as adapted An industrial bonding process also has its dif-
pretreatment of mild
tools for process simulation and characterization of ficulties, though. While in mechanical connec-
steel before thermal
properties, are required. For this purpose, the laser tions, the transfer of loads is achieved by means
direct joining is shown.
can be the key to success. of a pure form and force fit, but bonding requires
With a strict implementation of function-inte- an optimized material contact between the sur-
grated lightweight construction, local load differences influ- faces. The adhesive forces acting on the boundary layer of both
ence the use of materials of different classes. The connection materials, which is only a few microns thick, react very sensi-
of the various subcomponents places special demands on tively to changes. Contamination by oils and preservatives or
the joining technology. For example, metal inserts and screw flatness tolerances can lead to drastic losses in strength. To
bushings are bonded onto plastics during the injection mold- achieve transmission strength comparable to that of a screw
ing process. Preferred joining processes are the attachment connection, large surfaces are bonded.
of clips, screw connections, or rivets. However, gluing has also However, bonding proves to be uneconomical due to the
increasingly found its way into the automotive industry, espe- process sensitivity, the required connection area, and a large
cially where plastic fairing parts are bonded with metallic stiff- number of individual process steps. Typically, both joining part-
ening structures. ners are cleaned or pretreated before bonding, followed by the
Consider the tailgate of a BMW i3, for example, where application of the adhesive, fixation of both joining partners,
more than 11 meters of adhesive seam provide structural and the curing of the adhesive (chemical reaction).
strength, improved crash performance, and simple toler- Efficiency increases of the industrial bonding processes
ance compensation. have, for example, been achieved by using a laser pretreatment.

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 CW lasers to produce coarse struc-
tures with ablation depths up to 200
µm, so that fibers and highly viscous
plastic melt can also penetrate and
anchor themselves.
FIGURE 2 shows the cross-sec-
tion of a thermal direct joined con-
2 mm nection. The structures were com-
pletely filled with matrix and fibers.
Depending on the type of load, dif-
FIGURE 2. A cross-section of a
ferent ablation regimes are used.
metal-thermoplastic connection
200 µm Simple line and cross structures
(mild steel and glass fiber-reinforced
offer a good possibility to fill the
PA6), which was accomplished by
cavities completely with plastic.
thermal direct joining and laser
The combination of ablation and the
macrostructuring, is shown.
Here, the surfaces are cleaned from contamina- melting process provides an addi-
tions and simultaneously roughened, mostly by tional undercut due to melt adhe-
pulsed lasers to increase the area reacting with the adhesive. If sion. Using a solid-state laser with high beam quality (for
this ablation process is intensified—for example, by using con- example, 3 kW laser power), ablation rates of 100 to 500 mm2/s
tinuous-wave (CW) power lasers in the kilowatt range, deep (typical) are achievable.
trench structures can be created (FIGURE 1). Filling the result-
ing cavities with adhesives or plastic melt, a macroscopic form Laser structuring is not everything
closure is created. Thermal direct joining only proves to be efficient if the metal
This pretreatment strategy now offers the possibility of join- is heated and cooled very quickly. This can be done flexibly
ing materials more reliably by means of combination of adhe- by short-term heating using laser radiation. Similar to a sur-
sive bond and form fit. face-hardening process, the metal is heated from the side fac-
ing away from the joint. The rapid heating of any surfaces is
Fast joining due to controlled heating possible by the combination of a fast, controllable power laser
Another approach to simplify the production of hybrid connec- in the 800–1100 nm range and a scanner optic. FIGURE 3 shows
tions is thermal direct joining, in which metal and thermoplas- the stiffening structure of a middle armrest made of fiber-re-
tic are pressed together. Rapid heating of the metal causes inforced PA6 and mild steel. Here, the welding assembly and
melting of the thermoplastic in the contact area, which wets the cover plates were connected to an organo sheet by means
the surface and solidifies during cooling. This principle can be of laser heating.
applied to surfaces of any size and to various material com- Since the joining interface is not directly accessible, the
binations. Due to the clearly different coefficients of thermal sheet thickness and the temperature gradient generated in
expansion, high shear stresses occur in the boundary layer. the metal are specific because the melting temperature of the
To be able to absorb these stresses in addition to the loads
occurring during the use, either the plastic must be modified
or the metallic surface must be pretreated.
An industrially preferred process is the coating of the sheets
with adhesion promoter systems in the coil coating process.
The metallic semi-finished products are coated, formed, and
punched. Subsequently, thermoplastic fiber composite parts
can be bonded onto the metal by hot pressing.
Here, it can also be shown that brilliant-power lasers sim-
plify pretreatment. The macrostructures produced on the metal
surface are filled with the molten thermoplastic during thermal
direct joining. During solidification, the thermoplastic shrinks
and thus hooks into the metal structure.

Laser ablation ensure optimum plastic anchoring

Currently, various approaches to topography design for opti-
mized thermoplastic bonding are being investigated. For
example, ultrashort-pulse lasers generate specially shaped
microstructures that can be penetrated by the low-viscos-
ity plastic melt. In contrast, the approach by researchers at FIGURE 3. A stiffening structure of a middle armrest
the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology (feasibility study) made from joined mild steel and glass fiber-
(Fraunhofer IWS; Dresden, Germany) is based on the use of reinforced PA6 is shown.

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 a p p l i c a t i o n r e p o r t

thermoplastic must be maintained. The contact pressure also plays can easily be adapted to different heat dissipation conditions by
an important role, as it balances the tolerances so that the cavities scanner systems, inductive heating requires a geometry-adapted
can be filled by plastic and fibers. coil design. Corresponding finite element simulation tools have
However, there are also disadvantages with the laser process. therefore been developed and validated at Fraunhofer IWS. They
The principle of thermal direct joining is based on simultaneous are based on the COMSOL Multiphysics platform, and consider
pressing of the parts against each other and heating. Therefore, a the local energy coupling as well as the material-dependent heat
direct accessibility to all joints must be guaranteed. With complex conduction. Since in most cases it is only possible to work in the
parts, this is often impossible. outer field of the coil, it is also necessary to use field concentrators.
With a suitable design, the coupling efficiency can be increased up
Fast heating by induction to a factor of 10. FIGURE 4 shows the basic principle of eddy current
In the case of complex accessibility, short-term heating by induc- guidance using field concentrators.
tion offers many advantages. An electromagnetic alternating field is
created by a geometry-adapted current-carrying coil, which gener- Induction or laser heating: which is the best?
ates eddy currents and thus heats the electrically conductive joining Comparative studies with both laser and inductive heating have
partner. Depending produced comparable joint strengths. To compare the results
on the frequency obtained with bonding, tensile shear tests were carried out on
range used, either single overlapped joints in accordance with DIN EN 1465 (join-
volume heating takes ing surface: 12.5 × 25 mm2). The strength of material combina-
Inductor Inductor
place or the heat is tions of continuous glass fiber-reinforced PA6 with stainless steel,
generated directly in aluminum, or mild steel was approximately 25 MPa. The fracture
the boundary layer occurred almost exclusively in the base material of the composite.
by exploiting the When using higher strength materials such as carbon fiber-rein-
skin effect. FIGURE 4. The basic principle of eddy forced polyetherketoneketone (PEKK), strengths of up to 30 MPa
In contrast to current guidance using field concentrators with partial fiber breakage could be achieved. The strengths deter-
laser heating, which for heat efficiency increase. mined are in the range of systems joined or bonded with adhesion
promoters. The resistance of the joint to alternating climatic loads
was also successfully validated.
If, on the other hand, the load limits in oblique or head tension are
considered, it must be stated that there is still a need for research.

FIGURE 5. A robot-guided spot-welding gun for metal-

thermoplastic connections is shown.

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FIGURE 6. Fixation of composite structures for local stiffening using HPCI technology is
shown (also see http://s.fhg.de/hpci-clip).
This results from the adhesion mechanism,
consisting primarily of a form-fit with small
amounts of adhesion bond.
When considering the achievable join-
ing times, significant differences between
inductive and laser heating could be deter-
mined. Therefore, induction enables more
targeted heating so that, for example, the
above-mentioned standardized joining sur-
faces of mild steel with 1–2 s heating time
was required. In the case of laser heating,
3–5 s had to be applied to heat the mild
steel through without locally risking melt-
ing of the surface.
Thermal direct joining has been devel-
oped and qualified by research institu-
tions and companies for several years.
However, the industrial applications in
series production are still very limited.
The reason for this is the complex com-
ponent design leading to function-inte-
grated hybrid designs. The choice of the
right material in the right place requires
the innovative viewpoint of the designers.
The pure substitution of a metal compo-
nent by a plastic or composite part leads
to weight savings on the one hand, but at
a significantly higher cost. Nevertheless,
certain areas of application for the tech-
nology have already crystallized. For
example, laser structuring before injec-
tion molding is used as an alternative to
primer application or plastic modification
for small series production. In thermal
direct joining, the industry aims to man-
ufacture housing components or con-
necting elements from temperature- and
media-stable thermoplastics to connect
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1903ILS18-21.indd 21
LITTLE TO
NO-DEFECT
COPPER
WELDING
them to die-cast aluminum. Additional
From foils...
flanges for a screw connection, as well
as seals, can thus be omitted.
In addition, the technology has been
further developed so that automated
point-like joining is also possible. With the
technology marketed as HeatPressCool- 40 x 10µm foils
Integrative (HPCI), the joining partners are
pressed together similar to a conventional
spot-welding gun (FIGURE 5). A ring induc-
tor arranged around the punch heats the To 1mm copper
joining area. The thermoplastic melts and
binds to the metal. The special feature of
this technology is the possibility of locally
connecting plastic panels to metal inserts
for use in, for example, kitchen utensils,
lamps, and other consumer products. 1mm Copper thick
Furthermore, larger components can
be flexibly pre-fixed to overall structures
or directly bonded. Due to the compact
design of the system technology, the tools
are designed in such a way that conven-
...AND
tional handling technology can be used
(such as industrial robots), and thus the
FAST
HPCI technology can be integrated into
complex assembly chains (FIGURE 6). This is
the best precondition for a comprehensive
introduction to industrial manufacturing. ✺
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
HPCI is a registered trademark of THE BLUE LASER
Fraunhofer IWS.
COMPANY™
ANNETT KLOTZBACH (annett.klotzbach@iws.
fraunhofer.de) is Group Leader, Bonding and
Composite Technology at the Fraunhofer
www.nuburu.net
Institute for Material and Beam Technology
(Fraunhofer IWS), Dresden, Germany; www.
iws.fraunhofer.de.
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