Int J Mater Form (2010) Vol.

3 Suppl 1:1131–1134
DOI 10.1007/s12289-010-0971-1
© Springer-Verlag France 2010

HYBRID METAL-PLASTIC JOINING BY MEANS OF LASER

A. Fortunato1 , G. Cuccolini2 , A. Ascari1∗, L. Orazi2 , G. Campana1 , G. Tani1

1
University of Bologna Dept. DIEM , Italy (A. Fortunato, A. Ascari, G. Campana and G.Tani)
2
University of Modena & Reggio Emilia Dept. DISMI , Italy (G. Cuccolini and L. Orazi)

ABSTRACT: The growing need of lightweight components determined a large exploitation of non metallic materials
such as polymers, fibres and elastomers in the industrial production with a consequent request of specifically optimized
manufacturing processes. The high optimization demands in terms of cost, weight and productivity of the modern markets
determined a growing interest towards hybrid components in which two or more different materials coexist in order to
achieve specifically optimized characteristics. According to these considerations the work proposed in this article is
aimed at experimentally evaluate the feasibility of joining processes between metal and plastic components by means of
the exploitation of a laser source. The metallic material involved in the experimental trials is AISI 304 stainless steel
joined in an overlapping configuration with several different polymers: PA66, glass fibre reinforced PA66, carbon fibre
reinforced PA66. The laser source involved in this activity was a 100 𝑊 CW diode source equipped with a three axis cell.
In order to evaluate the results of the joining process a tensile test was carried out on the obtained specimens.

KEYWORDS: Laser Welding, Hybrid Joining, Glass Fibre Reinforced, Tensile Stress.

1 INTRODUCTION take several hours, but the major disadvantage of adhesive

processes is that the volatile organic compound emissions
Goods and components are usually fabricated using dif-
are very toxic, conditioning and filtering facilities are al-
ferent materials, in particular metal and plastic. Metals
ways required, and wasting liquids also need to be treated
are normally used to achieve high mechanical properties
before their disposal. According to the previous consider-
such as high strength-toughness ratio, or to obtain cer-
ations, laser direct joining of metals and plastics can rep-
tain physical properties such as high thermal or electri-
resent an undoubted advantage in terms of design flexibil-
cal conductivity and so on. Plastic materials are princi-
ity and fabrication rate. If compared to mechanical joints
pally used for their light weight, high corrosion resistance
the resistance of laser joints is lower but process flexibil-
and excellent deformability. According to the previous
ity is much higher especially if a solid state laser with a
considerations, automotive, electronics, aircraft, medical
fibre system transportation is used. In this case, theoreti-
and white appliances industries normally fabricate prod-
cally, limitations in terms of joint design and position are
ucts where metal and plastic are joined together by means
only due to the laser beam transportation and to the ac-
of well known traditional technologies such as mechani-
cessibility of the joining zone. If compared to adhesive
cal joints like riveting, bolting and screwing or adhesive
processes, direct laser welding is much faster, it provides
joints like gluing. Mechanical joints guarantee high re-
higher joint resistances, it has the same flexibility but it
sistance but they have limitations because they lead to a
does not have wasting liquid disposal problems. However
poor flexibility in terms of design of the joint because its
laser direct joining is a new technology and it is still in a
shape and position is mainly fixed when the mechanical
development stage for industrial use and deeper investiga-
process is chosen and, moreover, the production rate is
tions have still to be carried out in order to optimize the
low. Adhesive processes are probably the most used in
properties of the joints. The work proposed in this article
plastic-metal joints. It is a very simple technology and
is aimed at experimentally evaluate the feasibility of direct
high design flexibility can be achieved, anyway it also has
joining between metal and plastic components by means
several disadvantages. First of all the mechanical resis-
of the exploitation of a laser source. In particular the effect
tance is low and as a consequence the process is restricted
of the laser power and process speed are investigated. The
to components with low loads during their life. Work-
metallic material involved in the experimental trials was
ing temperatures have also to be limited to the ambient
AISI 304 stainless steel joined in an overlapping config-
temperature and the resistance in reactive chemical en-
uration with several different polymers: PA66, glass fibre
vironment is low. The quality of adhesive needs severe
reinforced PA66, carbon fibre reinforced PA66. The laser
maintenance. The production rate is still very low, it can
source involved in this activity was a 100 𝑊 CW diode
∗ Corresponding author: DIEM Dept. University of Bologna,
source equipped with a three axis cell. In order to eval-
Viale Risorgimento 2, Bologna. tel.: +39-051-2090494, email: uate the results of the joining process a tensile test was
a.ascari@unibo.it
1132

carried out on the obtained specimens. Basic knowledge

of the physical phenomena involved in the joint process
are mainly due to [1] and [2] and they are also presented.

2 HYBRID LASER WELDING

2.1 BASIC KNOWLEDGE
Direct laser joining between metals and plastics is based Figure 1: Direct laser joining setup
on plastic melting. No phase transformation occur in met-
als which are only heated during the process. Physical tem with a minimum spot diameter of 1 𝑚𝑚. The focus-
phenomena involved in the process are still under inves- ing head was mounted on the z axis of a three axes mi-
tigation but according to [1] they can be summarized as crometric Aerotech handling cell, while the welding spec-
follows: imens were clamped on a horizontal table handled by the
x and y axes. The whole system was enclosed in a filter-
∙ The metal-plastic interface is heated by the laser and ing cabin for the vapour emission disposal as presented in
the melting temperature is reached in the plastic ma- Figure 2. A closer image of the working area is shown in
terial in a narrow region adjacent the interface. Figure 3.
∙ The high temperature provokes the formation of bub-
bles into the melted plastic close to the interface.
∙ Bubbles spread into the molten phase and increase
the seam dimension.
∙ Bonding occurs in the molten-solid interface be-
tween plastic and metal.
Based on the previous experimental evidences the bond-
ing mechanism are supposed to be due to the combined
effects of chemical bonding between the metal oxide film
and the carbon atoms of polymers, of physical bonding
mainly due to the Van der Waals forces and of mechanical
Figure 2: Direct laser joining setup: working area
bonding (anchor effect).

2.2 PROCESS TECHNOLOGY

The physical phenomena previously described leads to a
first technological consideration: overlapping joints are
the unique welding configuration allowed. In order to do
this it should be considered that plastics have low ther-
mal conductivity (heat remains concentrated in the laser-
material interaction zone) and their optical properties de-
pend on the molecular composition of the polymer, on the
colour of the plastic and on the wavelength of the incident
laser radiation. If plastics are optically transparent, direct
laser plastic-metal joint happens if the laser absorption is
localized in the interface. If plastics are optically opaque,
the laser is focused on the external surface of the steel
component and the heat conduction into the metal melts
the plastic at the interface. The process setup is completed
by using an inert assistant gas. An outline of a direct laser
joining setup for a transparent plastic is presented in Fig-
ure 1.
Identical considerations allow to create weldings also be- Figure 3: Aerotech computer controlled stage
tween metals and reinforced plastics with glass and car-
bon fibres. Examples of different joints are presented in As mentioned in the previous paragraph only overlapping
following paragraph. joints were performed. Every specimen was fixed on the
handling table and moved with a proper welding velocity.
The metal exploited in the experiments was a 1 mm AISI
3 EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
304 sheet while the polymers were PA66, 35% glass fiber
The experiments were carried out by means of a 980 𝑛𝑚 reinforced PA66 and 40% carbon fiber reinforced PA66.
wavelength 100 𝑊 diode laser source from Quanta Sys- The plastic specimens were all 2 𝑚𝑚 thick and they were
 1133

all commercial injection molded materials. For the unre- present the failure aspect of a specimen after the test in
inforced PA66 both the opaque (A) and the transparent (T) case of an opaque and transparent plastic, respectively.
sort (with respect to the wavelength of the exploited laser As it is evident, failure does not happen along the joint
beam) was considered in the experiments. Two levels for but close to it in the heat affected zone.
welding velocity (𝑣) were considered during the trials (1
and 2 𝑚𝑚/𝑠) while the focal position (𝐷) was ranged 20
and 30 𝑚𝑚 above the workpiece surface in order to in-
crease the width of the laser-material interaction zone. A
resume of the experimental tests together with the related
process parameters is presented in Table 1. In order to
prove the quality of the achieved joints all the specimens
were mechanically tested by means of a tensile test and
the results are presented in the following paragraph.
Table 1: Experimental tests

Configuration A Configuration B
𝑣 𝐷 𝑣 𝐷
Polymer
[𝑚/𝑚𝑖𝑛] [𝑚𝑚] [𝑚/𝑚𝑖𝑛] [𝑚𝑚]
PA66 A 1 20 2 20 Figure 6: AISI304 joined with opaque PA66; 𝑣=1 𝑚𝑚/𝑠
PA66 T 1 20 2 20
PA6635GF 1 20 2 20
PA6640CF 1 20 1 30

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Figure 7: AISI304 joined with transparent PA66; 𝑣=1

Figure 4: Failure example in case of metal-opaque plastic 𝑚𝑚/𝑠
joining

Figures 6-9 report some of the tensile tests performed. In

Figure 5: Failure example in case of metal-transparent
plastic joining
The tensile tests were carried out by means of an Instron
testing machine with a load velocity of 0.1 𝑚𝑚/𝑠 record-
ing the axial force and displacement. Figures 4 and 5
every figure, labels and captions refer to the process pa-
rameters used for the joint and two tensile diagrams in the
same figure mean that the test was repeated twice. It is evi-
dent that the dispersion of the results is high in terms of the
maximum tensile stress recorded and in terms of the elon-
gation. A complete resume of all the results are presented
in Figure 11 for metal-non reinforced plastic joints and in
Figure 10 for metal-reinforced plastic joints. Configura-
tion A and Configuration B refer to the different process
parameters used during weldings such as the two velocity
levels and the two focus positions according to the sum-
marized tests in Table 1. Figure 10 shows the results in
terms of maximum tensile load for the five tests carried
out on the joints involving reinforced polymers. Some of
the trials were repeated twice, as shown by the (1) and (2)
labels in the legend, in order to evaluate the repeatability
of the process. The histogram suggests that for reinforced
1134
Figure 8: AISI304 joined with opaque PA66 35% glass
fiber reinforced; 𝑣=2 𝑚𝑚/𝑠
Figure 9: AISI304 joined with opaque PA66 40% carbon
fiber reinforced; 𝐷=20 𝑚𝑚
plastics 1 𝑚𝑚/𝑠 is a more suitable velocity as mechanical
resistance is sensibly reduced for 2 𝑚𝑚/𝑠 speed, accord-
ing to welding pool reduction typical for higher velocity,
while a negligible variation occurs for higher spot diam-
eters. Figure 11 shows the results in terms of maximum
tensile load for the six tests carried out on the joints in-
volving non-reinforced polymers. Also in this case some
of the trials were repeated twice. The histogram shows
that a not appreciable variation occurs varying the weld-
ing speed for non-reinforced opaque PA66, while the sit-
uation is the opposite considering transparent PA66. Data
dispersions are typical of mechanical characterization of
plastics but anyway more tests have to be carried out in
order to collect more data in order to achieve certain re-
sults. This paper reports, in fact, the preliminary results of
an ongoing experimental campaign.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Direct laser joining between metals and plastics was pre-
sented. AISI 304 stainless steel was joined in an overlap-
ping configuration with PA66, 35% glass fiber reinforced
PA66, 40% carbon fiber reinforced PA66 using a 980 𝑛𝑚
Figure 10: Tensile test results concerning reinforced plas-
tics
Figure 11: Tensile test results concerning non-reinforced
plastics
wavelength 100 𝑊 diode laser source. Different process
parameters were used and the resulting joints were me-
chanically tested by means of a tensile test. The prelimi-
nary results reported in this paper show a good mechani-
cal resistance when the failure happen in the heat affected
zone. These results are the first set of a wider ongoing
experimental campaign.
REFERENCES
[1] S. Katayama, Y. Kawahito, Y. Niwa, and S. Kubota.
Laser-assisted metal and plastic joining. In Proc. of
the 5th LANE 2007 Conference, Erlangen,
September 2007, pages 41–51, 2007.
[2] Y. Kawahito, Y. Niwa, K. Nishimoto, and
S. Katayama. Application of laser assisted metal and
plastic joining for dissimilar metal welding. In Proc.
of the 5th International WLT-Conference on Lasers
in Manufacturing, Munich, June 2009, ISBN
078-3-00-027994-2, pages 21–25, 2009.