Rotary Friction Welding of Dissimilar Polymer Rods Containing Metal Powder

Chil-Chyuan Kuo; Hong-Wei Chen; Song-Hua Huang

doi:10.3390/polym15224354

Rotary Friction Welding of Dissimilar Polymer Rods Containing Metal Powder

Polymers (Basel). 2023 Nov 8;15(22):4354. doi: 10.3390/polym15224354.

Authors

Chil-Chyuan Kuo^{1

2

3

4}, Hong-Wei Chen¹, Song-Hua Huang⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ming Chi University of Technology, No. 84, Gungjuan Road, Taishan District, New Taipei City 24301, Taiwan.
² Research Center for Intelligent Medical Devices, Ming Chi University of Technology, No. 84, Gungjuan Road, Taishan District, New Taipei City 24301, Taiwan.
³ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Chang Gung University, No. 259, Wenhua 1st Rd., Guishan Dist., Taoyuan City 33302, Taiwan.
⁴ Center for Reliability Engineering, Ming Chi University of Technology, No. 84, Gungjuan Road, Taishan District, New Taipei City 24301, Taiwan.
⁵ Li-Yin Technology Co., Ltd., No. 37, Lane 151, Section 1, Zhongxing Road, Wugu District, New Taipei City 24101, Taiwan.

Abstract

Three-dimensional printing is widely used for manufacturing a variety of functional components. However, the 3D printing machine substantially limits the size of the functional components. Rotary friction welding (RFW) is a possible solution to this problem. In addition, there is a notable scarcity of research directed toward the domain knowledge of RFW involving dissimilar polymer rods containing metal powder. In this study, two welding specimens fabricated by polylactic acid (PLA)-containing copper powder and PLA-containing aluminum powder were joined using a turning machine. After RFW, a bending test and a Shore A surface hardness test were performed to investigate the weld quality. It was found that the bending strength of the welded parts fabricated by RFW of PLA and PLA-containing Al powder rods can be enhanced by about 57.5% when the welded part is placed at 45 °C. Surface hardness test results showed that the surface hardness of the weld interface is better than that of the 3D printed parts, and the average surface hardness of the weld interface from RFW of PLA and PLA is the highest. The surface hardness of the weld joint is about 3% higher than that of the base material. The surface hardness of the heat-affected zone is about 3% lower than that of the base material. The average peak temperature of the welded joint is the highest in the RFW of PLA-containing Al powder and PLA-containing Al powder rods. The average peak temperature of the weld joint can be as high as 160 °C. The average peak temperature of the welded joint is the highest in the RFW of PLA-containing Cu powder and PLA-containing Cu powder rods. The average peak temperature of the welded joint can be as high as 144 °C. A technical database was built for the selection of ambient temperatures used for the RFW of dissimilar polymer rods containing metal powder and three base materials.

Keywords: aluminum powder; ambient temperature; copper powder; polylatic acid; rotary friction welding.

Grants and funding

This study received financial support from the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan under contract nos. NSTC 111-2221-E-131-015-MY2, MOST 110-2221-E-131-023, and MOST 109-2637-E-131-004.