Characterization of plastic-metal hybrid composites joined by means of reactive Al/Ni multilayers : evaluation of occurring thermal regime

Present challenges in material science and joining technology are ever more subject to the desire for lightweight construction and engineering. Plastic-metal composites are suitable material combinations but also require the development and investigation of appropriate joining technologies. A particularly promising approach is the application of reactive multilayer foils. As an innovative method, these foils provide the possibility of flexible and low-distortion joining of dissimilar materials. The underlying reaction mechanism offers fast exothermic reaction propagation with well-known exothermic power output while the energy source is introduced directly into the joining zone. In this work, hybrid lap joints between semi-crystalline polyamide 6 and structured austenitic stainless steel X5CrNi18-10 were joined using reactive Al/Ni multilayer foils. The self-propagating reaction provides immediate temperatures that are well above the melting point of used plastic but decays rapidly after only a few milliseconds. To support ongoing investigations regarding composite formation, analysis of occurring thermal regime is in the focus of this work. Conducted experiments are supported by accompanying thermal simulation in ANSYS Workbench. Besides the estimation regarding sensitivity of thermal material parameters the evaluation of formed melting zone and resulting thermally influenced area is a central topic.