Rapid polymer to metal joints: RapidPM

Legislation is driving major changes in the way that certain industries designs and manufactures its products to make them more environmentally friendly and less polluting. In automotive, emissions controls are challenging designers to produce ever lighter vehicles, which has driven them to consider incorporating less dense materials such as polymer composites. In electronics, WEEE Legislation has driven designers to use materials, which are inherently recyclable as well as allowing them design freedom to reduce costs and increase functionality. This has led to a shift towards 3D packaging and the use of thermoplastic encapsulants. RapidPM will develop technology to enable structures comprising fundamentally different material types to be assembled rapidly, consistently and using low cost technology. The basic approach is to use a thermoplastic coating which is deposited onto the surface of one component, usually a metal such as aluminium alloy or copper, and bond this by welding onto the other component which could typically be a thermoplastic or a thermoplastic composite. In this way, designers of structures for the electronics and automotive industries can use the flexibility afforded by advanced thermoplastic processing technologies, the properties of the thermoplastic in use, and the inherent recyclability which thermoplastics bring by remelting. The project will generate results of mechanical test of joints, environmental tests, and techno-economic assessment against conventional adhesive bonding and mechanical fastening techniques.