Manufacture of the hetero-structure bonding joint between carbon fibre-reinforced plastics and aluminium alloy by using hot pressing one-time forming process

Carbon fibre-reinforced plastics (CFRPs) are increasingly widely used in aerospace, automotive, energy and weapon equipment industries. It is inevitable to consider the connection process between CFRPs and traditional metal materials (such as steel and aluminium alloy). In this paper, a new one-time hot pressing method to prepare CFRPs and aluminium alloy hetero-structure bonding joint was first proposed to shorten the process chain. Then, the effects of different combinations of forming temperature and pressure on the properties of the structure were systematically investigated through shear strength tests and short-beam three-point bending experiments. And the range analysis and analysis of variance were used to analyze the effects of forming temperature and pressure on the formability and forming performances of the hetero-structures. It is found that it is feasible to manufacture the hetero-structure bonding joint between CFRPs and aluminium alloy by using hot pressing one-time forming process, and 400 °C, 0.4 MPa might be used as the best one-step forming process conditions for the CFRPs and aluminium alloy hetero-structure.