Experimental Investigation and Performance Enhancement of Inserts in Composite Parts

New joining technologies are needed due to the increased use of carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) in the automotive industry. Traditional joining technologies cannot fulfill the requirements, especially for multimaterial assemblies of CFRP and metal. A suitable technology for the integration of mounting points in CFRP parts is the embedding of inserts. In this paper, two approaches to increase the tensile and bending strength of inserts are evaluated experimentally. Bead patterns are added in the metal sheet of the inserts to increase stiffness. Furthermore, surface treatments are used to enhance the co-cured bonding strength between insert and CFRP.