Development of a continuous process for the intrinsic production of plastic-metal composite structures

The production of aluminum-polymer hybrid components often involves several consecutive process steps. Together with the Institute for Polymer Research Dresden (IPF), this is being reduced in a research project funded by the German Research Foundation. The goal is to develop a technology for the continuous production of hybrid profiles made of aluminum and polymer in a single process step. To this end, a polymer extruder is connected to an extrusion press, making it possible to extrude a liquid polymer melt directly into the aluminum flow. The challenge is to combine the process windows of the different processes in terms of temperature, pressure, and process speeds and to produce reproducible and stable hybrid profiles. It has already been demonstrated that both constant and axially graded profiles can be successfully produced over the entire profile length. In addition to the polysulfone polymer shown in the picture, polyamide and polyethylene could also be processed.

Korkolis, Y.P., Schindler, P., Henn, E., Gebhard, J., Stommel, M., Tekkaya, A.E., 2025. Hot extrusion of aluminium-polymer profiles with axially-graded cross-sections. CIRP Annals. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cirp.2025.03.038

Kotzyba, P., Henn, E., Gebhard, J., Stommel, M., Tekkaya, A.E., 2023. Processing of Aluminum-Polymer-Composites by Hot Extrusion. In: Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Aluminum Extrusion Technology Seminar.

Kotzyba, P., Gebhard, J., Schulze, A., Günther, F., Stommel, M., Tekkaya, A.E., 2023. Novel extrusion process for the production of Aluminum-Polymer-Composites. In: ICTP 2023.

Gebhard, J., Günther, F., Hering, O., Stommel, M., Tekkaya, A.E., 2020. Introduction of Intrinsic Hot Aluminum-Polymer Extrusion. In: Proceedings of the Twelfth International Aluminum Extrusion Technology Seminar.