Development of Disc Friction Joining and its Application to Dissimilar Butt Joining of Aluminum and Resin Plates

Abstract

We have developed a joining process which we named disc friction joining (DFJ). DFJ is a solid state butt joining method that utilizes a rotating disc that is sandwiched and compressed by two plates to be joined. Frictional heat generated at the contact interfaces effectively softens the materials to be plastically deformed by the compression force applied, yielding a joint interface once the disc is withdrawn and the plates make contact. The feasibility of DFJ was examined by joining commercial pure aluminum and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plates. These materials were successfully joined, and the joint exhibited a tensile fracture stress of 17.1MPa at room temperature.