A Sustainable Hybrid Inductive Joining Technology for Aluminum and Composites

Abstract

Abstract Sustainable manufacturing technologies as well as lightweight and multi-material design in production have become key factors for success in industrial sectors such as transportation, automotive production or aerospace. Therefore, an automatable hybrid joining technology is required with a high industrial output. Mechanical, chemical and thermal technologies can be applied to join fiber-reinforced thermoplastics (FRP) with metals. The advantage of induction heating as a thermal joining process is the immediate generation of heat inside the electrically conductive material at the joining surface. Due to the direct conversion of electricity into heat the joining process can be emission-free if the energy is produced by regenerative sources. However, the distance between coil and joining partners, the transport of the workpiece to the pressing tool and the subsequent separate cooling in conventional inductive joining methods reported in the literature result in power losses and extended process times. The unique new hybrid inductive contact joining (ICJ) process is characterized by the integration of heating, pressing and cooling into one hybrid process step which is performed by one tool. The conducted experiments and finite element simulations provide data for the main process parameters during joining, joint strength as well as the impact of surface preparations and demonstrate the advantages of the ICJ process in comparison with conventional thermal joining processes.