A study on the electro-hydraulic clinching of aluminum and carbon fiber reinforced plastic sheets

Abstract

In the electro-hydraulic clinching technique, a shock wave is created in the water by discharging electrical energy deposited in a pulse generator between two electrodes submerged in the fluid. The created shock wave hits the lower sheet and forms the sheet to the die cavity through the pre-drilled hole in the upper sheet. Two sheets are joined in few milliseconds. In this paper, the joinability of this novel joining process is investigated in the joining of AA1050-O/CFRP sheets. The joint strength between two sheets is evaluated via the shearing test, the morphology of the created joint, the failure mode, and the energy absorption capacity. The achieved results indicated that the dragging of the CFRP in the joining process has a significant effect on the joint strength. Furthermore, by utilizing this joining technique, the thinning of the neck thickness improves and the joint strength increases.

Keywords

• Clinching
• Electro-hydraulic forming
• High speed clinching
• CFRP joining