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

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 pro-cesses deteriorate the mechanical properties of the FRP by cutting the fibers. Adhesives require a long curing time and leads to inseparable material compounds. This paper presents a new approach of joining FRP and met-als whereby the surface of the thermoset FRP is pre-treated by a laser structuring process, whereby the surface is considerably increased. Then a coating material is applied to the previously structured surface by wire-arc spray-ing to functionalize the surface. Finally, the joining process of the coated FRP with a metallic counter body is car-ried out by a soldering process. In order to determine the optimal joining strength, the influence of different sur-face structures, coating parameters and soldering processes was examined.