Enhancement of AA6061-CF/PA66 weld joints via multi-scale surface textures produced by electrochemical jet machining
摘要
The growing demand for metal–carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic (CFRTP) hybrid structures has intensified research on metal-CFRTP welding. However, substantial differences in the material properties pose challenges in achieving high-strength metal-CFRTP joints. Surface texturing has emerged as an effective method for enhancing such dissimilar-material joints. In this study, EJM was utilized to fabricate multi-scale surface textures on metallic substrates to enhance the AA6061-CF/PA66 hot-pressure-welded (HPW) joints. A comparative analysis was conducted on HPW joints with single-scale and multi-scale textures, demonstrating the superior efficacy of EJM multi-scale texturing over EJM single-scale texturing. XPS analysis confirmed consistent chemical bonding across all texture scales, indicating that the superior strength improvement induced by the multi-scale textures stems primarily from synergistic micro/macro mechanical interlocking. The morphological effect of the multi-scale texture was investigated and shown to be critical for optimizing joint performance. With appropriate texture characteristics, EJM multi-scale texturing increased the maximum joint strength by 87% compared to non-textured joints. These findings suggest that EJM multi-scale texturing is a potential pretreatment approach for manufacturing high-performance metal-CFRTP hybrid structures.