Joining of tubular carbon fiber-reinforced plastic/aluminum by magnetic pulse welding

Among the available material joining technologies, welding technology has been practiced for decades. This can be attributed to its high efficiency especially in produced high quality weld joints. However, considering the current rapid technological changes and advancement, new materials have been developed for various applications. For instance, the use of light-weight materials based on composites and metal alloys have recently increased in numerous industrial applications. This has raised questions on the feasibility of the available conventional welding methods in meeting the current and future welding demands. Therefore, the development of efficient technologies for joining both similar and dissimilar light-weight materials without compromising on their properties have attracted significant attention of researchers.

In a recently published literature, magnetic pulse welding technology has been identified as a promising solution. Generally, it joins together metal workpieces due to the induced magnetic fields. On the other and, electromagnetic compression has also shown the ability to join metallic materials especially tubular workpieces. To validate the weld quality, the influence of the geometric parameters on the electromagnetic compression should be taken into consideration. Unfortunately, joining of metallic and non-metallic materials have not been fully explored. Therefore, extending the magnetic pulse welding technology to joining structural components comprising of both metallic and non-metallic materials is highly desirable.

To this note, Hunan University researchers: Dr. Junjia Cui, Ya Li, Quanxiaoxiao Liu and Professor Guangyao Li in collaboration with Dr. Xu Zhang from Changsha University of Science and Technology and Zhidan Xu from SAIC GM Wuling Automobile checked the feasibility of using magnetic pulse welding technology in joining metallic and non-metallic materials. In particular, they joined aluminum tubes to thin-walled carbon fiber reinforced plastic. Additionally, they evaluated the mechanical properties and the microstructure of the resultant weld joints. Their work is currently published in the journal, Journal of Materials Processing Technology.

In brief, the authors commenced their research work by a detailed cross-examination of the magnetic pulse welding technology and more so its application in joining metallic and non-metallic materials. Next, they developed a structure for joining the 5A02 aluminum tubes and carbon fiber-reinforced plastic. Furthermore, they accessed the various mechanism and factors affecting weld quality and performance.

The authors observed relatively good weld qualities. For instance, the magnetic pulse welded joints recorded higher tensile and torsional strengths than aluminum tubes. Additionally, only two linear welding zones: welding and non-welding zones were observed. This was attributed to the varying deformation behavior of the outer tubes. However, the remaining welding zones exhibited relatively weaker welding processes. Furthermore, it was worth noting that the three holes on the carbon fiber reinforced plastic was responsible for the welding process between the outer and core tubes.

In summary, Junjia Cui and his colleagues successfully demonstrated the feasibility of magnetic pulse welding in joining aluminum tubes and carbon fiber reinforced plastics. To actualize their study, they performed numerical simulations to determine the joint mechanisms. Interestingly, no damage to the carbon fiber reinforced plastic tube was observed. Therefore, magnetic pulse welding technology proves a promising solution for joining metallic and non-metallic materials which will, in turn, advance their various applications.