Patent ID: 11890788
Assignee: THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Field: Other special machines (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  C | IPC B

Claim 0:
1. A method of producing polymer-metal hybrid components that are bonded by C—O-M bonds at a polymer-metal interface, where M represents an element in the metal to be joined, the method comprising:
providing the metal and the polymer;
forming distributed air pockets on at least one surface of the metal using a scratching tool with multiple scribe tips to produce distributed scratching grooves 0.2-0.5 mm in depth on the at least one surface of the metal that traps air at the polymer metal interface, the scratching tool is driven to rotate and travel along the at least one surface;
applying compressive pressure to a polymer-metal interface after the step of forming distributed air pockets on at least one surface of the metal, the applied compressive pressure being higher than a flow resistance of the softened polymer at the polymer-metal interface;
heating the polymer-metal interface to an interfacial temperature above a glass transition temperature of the polymer and maintaining the compressive pressure at the polymer-metal interface to generate intimate atomic contact between the metal and the polymer to create substantially C—O-M chemical bonds along the polymer-metal interface; and
reducing the interfacial temperature below the polymer melting temperature before 5% of the polymer has pyrolyzed to avoid breaking of the C—O-M chemical bonds.