Metal Polymer Connections: Laser-Induced Surface Enlargement Increases Joint Strength

The trend towards hybrid materials consisting of metals and polymers is strongly driven by requirements such as weight reduction and improved functionality. A crucial step towards new hybrid materials is the advancement of joining technology. While metals and polymers are currently often joined using adhesives, this technology has major drawbacks such as long process cycle time, low robustness with regard to changes of the material composition, and are almost impossible to recycle, a point which is becoming increasingly important. A promising joining method is thermal direct joining of metals and thermoplastic polymers due to its fast cycle time, its robustness of the process and the absence of duroplastic adhesives. Direct joining requires surface treatment of the metallic joining partner prior to the thermal joining process to achieve a sufficiently high contact strength. It is known that laser-induced topologies on the metal surface are beneficial with regard to contact strength of the joints. Designing a joint based on laser structured metals requires a fundamental understanding of the interface interactions. The present paper focuses on the influence of surface enlargement on the joint strength. Laser pretreatment was utilized to generate surface structures with specific surface enlargement on the metallic joining partner. The pretreated metallic parts were subsequently joined with a thermoplastic polymer by injection molding. The joint strength was investigated in single lap shear tests. The key finding is that the contact strength increases almost linearly with the surface area within the tested parameter range, while the structure geometry parameters have only a minor influence. This may help as a design guideline for future adhesive-free hybrid material joining technologies.