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The demand for material, energy and weight saving in many industrial fields promotes the use of
novel lightweight construction materials like fibre reinforced plastics (FRP). FRP with
thermoplastic matrices provide a high potential for lightweight construction together with the
possibility of process automation, a good medium resistance, a favourable impact behaviour and
good recyclability. However, the employment of these materials raises joining problems since
usual joining technologies can scarcely be used. Preliminary studies showed that welding
technologies are superior to the conventional joining technologies riveting and adhesive bonding
with regard to the mechanical seam properties.
Therefore, the aim of the present work was the development of plant configurations and process
windows for welding thermoplastic FRP with which a material and component spectrum as big
as possible can be joined economically. The investigated materials were fabric reinforced
thermoplastics (polypropylene, polyamide 12, polyamide 6.6 and polyphenylene sulphide) with
glass fibre and/or carbon fibre reinforcement and fibre volume fractions above 35%.
The evaluation of the existing welding technologies with regard to technological, economical
and ecological aspects showed that vibration welding and induction welding are most suitable to
welding of thermoplastic FRP. Therefore, these two welding technologies were investigated in
detail in the present work.
For vibration welding the parameter influences determined in different works on unreinforced
thermoplastics were confinned qualitatively. However, for the exa1nined fabric reinforced
thermoplastics the process parameters differed quantitatively compared to those for unreinforced
thermoplastics. The optimum welding pressure as well as the necessary welding time were three
times that for unreinforced thermoplastics. Despite the abrasion of the reinforcing fibres due to
the friction forces, a very good tensile shear strength was achieved. For a glass-fibre fabric
reinforced polyamide 12, for example, a weld factor of l was achieved. A process-controlled
welding pressure reduction during the vibration phase 3, which was proposed for unreinforced
thermoplastics, was integrated into a developed system controller programme. In this the melt
displacement course is analysed online and the pressure is reduced automatically. For T-profiles
with welded braces of glass-fibre reinforced polypropylene this procedure led to an essential
strength and rigidity increase. However, for single lap joints of FRP no strength increase could
be observed. As technological and economical alternative to the vibration welding technology, a continuous
induction welding process was developed, the necessary plant was built and the process was
analysed and modelled. Current flow in the laminate was identified as the dominant mechanism
of induction heating of carbon-fibre fabric reinforced plastics, due to the contact of the crossing
fibre bundles. The essential quality relevant feature of the developed process is the course of the
laminate temperature during the four process phases. This was analysed and the influencing
process parameters were determined and quantified.
A simple model based on fibre contact in the laminate was developed, with which the necessary
induction heating time for different lmninate structures was estimated. The differing fibre contact
areas in the different fabrics were considered by the introduction of a fabric factor. In order to
obtain a more exact determination of the temperature distribution in the laminate a finite element
model was developed. With this model the temperature distribution and the absolute temperature
in carbon-fibre reinforced laminates during induction heating were predicted. It was sufficient to
model the inhomogeneous laminate in a simplified manner as monolithic material with anisotropic
properties. The three cooling phases were modelled with Fourier's law of thermal conduction
in its three-dimensional form, which was solved with the Binder-Schmidt explicit method.
The difference between measured and calculated values was less than IO %. With the developed
models it is possible to determine optimum process parameters with the aid of a few easy
preliminary experiments.
Like for vibration welding optimum process windows for carbon-fibre and glass-fibre reinforced
thermoplastics were developed for induction welding, too. The achieved tensile shear strength of
induction welded single lap joints was only slightly lower than that of vibration welded
specimens concerning equivalent laminates.
Finally, the developed welding technologies were compared with each other regarding technological
and economical aspects. It was found that vibration and induction welding complement
each other very well. Vibration welding should be used for mass production and simple shaped
parts with small to medium sizes, while induction welding is more suitable for small series of
parts with almost any shape and size.