Low Temperature Soldering of Laser Structured and Metal Coated Fiber-Reinforced Plastic

Fiber-reinforced plastics (FRP) exhibit excellent mechanical properties combined with low density. Thermoset FRP and metals are mainly connected by mechanical joining processes or adhesive bonding. Mechanical joining processes deteriorate the mechanical properties of the FRP by cutting the fibers. Adhesives require a long curing time and lead to inseparable material compounds. A new approach of joining FRP and metals is a laser pre-treatment process before functionalization of the plastic based substrate by a wire-arc sprayed coating process. Afterwards, the joining process of the coated FRP with a metallic counterpart is carried out by a low temperature soldering process. Due to the massively enlarged interface area resulting from laser structuring, bond strengths of up to 15.5 MPa could be achieved.