Carbon Fiber Reinforced Thermal Polymers (CFRTP) have broad applications in the area of aerospace, new energy vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles manufacturing. Realizing a high quality joint between CFRTP and metal materials is a key technology for CFRTP industrial applications. Common joining methods between the CFRTP and metals include adhesive bonding, mechanical joining and thermal joining. Compared with the adhesion bonding method, the thermal joining method has higher joining strength and better environmental adaptability. And compared with the mechanical joining method, the thermal joining method has a more uniform stress distribution. As a thermal joining method, the advanced laser welding technology has characters of non-contacting and high-efficiency, and has great potential in the joining of CFRTP and metal materials.
Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering cooperated with Shenzhen Institute of Peking University, made a research progress on CFRTP/metal laser joining.The mathematical model was established to calculate the distribution of temperature, and the width, depth, thermal defect of the joint were predicted. The joining defects were observed by SEM. Lots of air bubbles were detected around the joint, which affect the joining strengthen greatly. And the producing mechanism of these air bubbles was investigated (Electro-machining andMould，2015). The polymer filling and laser melting method was proposed to improve the joining strength (Chinese patent No. 201510014414.4，201520020784.4). Research results on the CFRTP and metals joining was awarded the best paper on the 16th National Conference on Non-traditional Machining (2015/11/1-3,Xiamen, China), and was also presented on theInternational Congress on Applications of Lasers and Optoelectronics (October 18-22, 2015, Atlanta, GA, USA).
This research was funded by the Natural Science Foundationof Ningbo under Grant No. 2015A610078 and thebasic research layout of Shenzhen under grant No. JCYJ20150529162228734.
Dr. Junke Jiao jiaojunke@nimte.ac.cn
All Images by 