SKZ

Hybrid technological approaches that either combine different types of materials or combine different material processing technologies hold significant interest to industry. Such approaches improve component properties, enable lightweight construction and facilitate resource-efficient production.

Hybrid metal-polymer composites in particular are attracting great interest, e.g. for lightweight construction applications. The quality of hybrid metal-polymer composites inevitably depends on the interlocked joining surface between the two bonding surfaces involved.

Typically, the metal surface is structured by a laser optical or mechanical treatment before the polymer is thermally bonded to it to improve the bonding forces between the two materials. By using additive manufacturing, this additional process step can be omitted, as suitable surface structures are specifically built up on the defined joining surface.

The aim of the research project is to develop and evaluate surface structures produced by additive manufacturing that increase the stability of the subsequent thermal joining process compared to a classic subtractive surface treatment.