Innovent: Metal-plastic hybrid injection molding with laser without chemicals

The Innovent project "Laser structuring for hybrid injection molding" is primarily aimed at companies that manufacture products in metal-plastic hybrid injection molding or manufacture metal inserts for hybrid products and are looking for efficient, automation-capable methods of surface treatment without the use of chemicals. In metal-plastic hybrid injection molding, polymeric bonding agents are commonly used to bond plastics firmly or sealingly to a metal insert. As current development work has shown, particularly high adhesive strengths can be achieved by suitable laser microstructuring of metallic composite surfaces. The prospect of being able to completely dispense with chemicals for surface pre-treatment for solid hybrid composites and the potential applicability for a wide range of metal-plastic combinations are plus points that speak in favour of the widespread introduction of laser surface treatment in hybridization technology. However, there is still a lack of practical processing and provision of existing knowledge from research projects and preliminary developments that would enable a reliable transfer to typical industrial tasks. The industry-oriented research institute Innovent is therefore planning a new Innovative User Project ("INNAP") in order to make the know-how acquired to date available to as many industrial users as possible and at the same time to develop a broad database on important technological aspects of practical implementation.

Companies interested in innovative hybrid technologies are invited to participate in the innovative user project "Laser structuring for hybrid injection molding"; the project will start in November 2024. The companies participating in the project will thus be given an economically attractive and time-saving opportunity to get to know laser structuring better and also to investigate it on material combinations of their own choice. The aim of this project is to support interested companies with Innovent's existing expertise in laser treatment and the institute's technical facilities and equipment. Practical test series tailored to participant-specific topics can be used to derive statements on the advantages and potential possibilities of laser surface treatments in companies. The implementation in the form of a joint project with individual selection of the materials to be examined offers the opportunity to obtain extensive information on important issues of laser surface treatment in manufacturing processes of interest at low cost and with low use of personnel and technical resources, such as assessment of the advantages and possibilities of laser treatment for specific production tasks, Feasibility assessment and prospects of success of laser structuring for user-typical materials and derivation of design requirements, assessment of technological relevance from test series with technologically representative parameter variants of laser treatment and comparison of results with other metal materials introduced by other participants. Detailed information on the project form as well as the content and organizational planning of the project and the application documents can be found on the Innovent website.