Effect of upset pressure on friction welding of porous aluminum and thermoplastic resin

Porous aluminum, which has many pores inside, is lightweight and has excellent shock absorption and sound absorption properties. Because of these characteristics, the use of this material in structural components for automobiles and other vehicles is expected to improve fuel efficiency and collision safety performance. However, porous aluminum has low tensile and flexural strength due to its thin cell walls. Therefore, porous aluminum is expected to be used by combining with dense materials. In this study, we attempted to join aluminum foam fabricated by the precursor method to a thermoplastic resin polycarbonate plate (PCTA) by friction welding. In addition, we verified the effect of upset pressure on friction welding of porous aluminum to PCTA. As a result, high joining strength was obtained by upset pressure at appropriate joining surface temperatures. The results also suggest that upset pressure can prevent air bubbles in the PCTA near the welding interface that generated during welding.