Automated laser pretreatment for metallic lightweight surfaces that are difficult to bond to

Purpose and goal:

The purpose is to create a deeper understanding in pre-treatment to meet industrial needs and requirements for surfaces difficult to bond to. The project intends to fill a knowledge gap by developing laser pre-treatment processes for a wide range of joining methods and evaluate these technically and sustainably with an industrialization focus. The goal is to develop and evaluate the processes in company-relevant technical cases, for different types of industries with lightweight applications. The project includes industrialization cases and cross-industry learning.

Expected results and effects:

Laser treatment can contribute to higher bond performance on both short- and long-term perspective. A more sustainable, robust and automated process. With less need of component quality control, energy, chemical and fresh water.

The project would with the laser pretreatment like to contribute to the possibility of implementing structural bonding on metals for lightweight and multimaterial design with oxides or coatings difficult to bond to, without harming the coating effect or weldability. Approach and implementation:

The project is divided into five work packages. Where the work is initiated with the development of new and deeper knowledge on the effects from laser treatment and how to improve the bonding strength for single or hybrid joining. This will be followed up by a study in long time behavior where fatigue and environmental effects on the joints will be addressed.

The most promising technical results will be evaluated on technical demonstrators. The work is also including a risk, sustainability, and cost assessment.