Resistance welding of glass fiber reinforced thermoplastic composite: Experimental investigation and process parameter optimization
Bing Du, Liming Chen, Houchang Liu, Qinghao He, Weiming Qin, Weiguo Li
Abstract
The utilization of fiber reinforced thermoplastics (FRTP) is expected to fulfill lightweight demand in mass-produced aerospace products. Facing the unavoidable assembly of FRTP parts, fusion bonding methods such as resistance welding are promising compared with mechanical joint and adhesive bonding. In this paper, a procedure has been brought out to understand the relationship between processing conditions and performance of the FRTP welding joints. The adherends were continuous glass fiber reinforced polypropylene (GF/PP) laminates fabricated by hot-pressing method. The influences of time, current and pressure on the bending strength of the resistance welding joints were investigated. A processing window was drawn based on the optical observation of welded surfaces. The quantitative relationship between process parameters and mechanical property of GF/PP welding joint was established by Response Surface Method (RSM) with high accuracy. It was found that bending strength of GF/PP welding joint was improved by 31% compared with hot-pressing benchmark.