Manufacturing of polymer/metal macro composites by plastic injection molding and investigating the effects of process parameters

Manufacturing of hybrid materials in the combination of different materials gains great importance nowadays. These hybrids are also called macro composites and especially, polymer/metal macro composites are representative of this kind of unique combination to achieve improved quality of products in some fields such as electronics, automotive and aerospace. In this study, a method for manufacturing polymer/metal sandwich structure is presented in which traditional plastic injection machine was converted to plastic injection forming (PIF). In this method, deforming of the metal and adhering the metal with polymer was done in one step. In the experimental study, a special mold within rectangular cavity was used in the PIF process. Aluminum (Al) plates with dimensions of 75x 115 x 1.5 (mm) were used as the metal part of the structure. The injected polymers were various types of polymers such as polystyrene, polypropylene and elastomer added polystyrene. The deformability of the aluminum plates were examined under different injection pressures. In order to provide adhesion between metal and polymer, an adhesive was applied on the metal plate prior injection molding. 3-point bending test was applied to determine the flexural strength and maximum deflection of the metal/polymer macro composites. The obtained results showed that plastic injection forming was acceptable for manufacturing polymer/metal macro composites in one step.