International Scientific Journals
of Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0"

This paper presents an overview of technologies for joining fibre-reinforced polymer composites to thin-walled metal sheets. It covers the areas of welding, bonding with different surface texturing as well as mechanical joining. It analyses the problems arising from the different mechanical, physical properties of metals and composite materials and presents the possibilities of solving them by the application of individual and combined joining technologies.

The paper is focused on research results of dissimilar materials joining by adhesive bonding. Galvanized and non-galvanized steel sheets with a thickness of 0.8 mm were joined together. To compare the effect of the presence or absence of the Zn layer on the strength of the adhesive joints, control joints were made, consisting only of galvanized and only of non-galvanized materials. The materials were joined on one hand without any surface preparation, and on the other hand prepared by degreasing and mechanical roughening with sandpaper. Epoxy/PVC-Polymerblend adhesive with glass beads was used for bonding to check the thickness of the adhesive. The tensile lap-shear strength was tested according to DIN EN 1465. The joints made of galvanized materials only proved the highest, the joints made of nongalvanized materials only proved the lowest shear strength. The mixed joints did not reach the joint strength of galvanized materials, but exceeded the joint strength of non-galvanized materials. The adhesion of the adhesive to non-galvanized substrates seems to be the limiting factor of the strength of mixed joints