Development of a Numerical Model of the Hot Air Staking Process Based on Experimental Data

Intelligent light weight concepts are increasingly designed as multi-material systems in order to achieve optimized properties through a targeted combination of materials. For these applications, the market demands joining technologies that make it possible to join foreign materials reliably (e.g., incompatible thermoplastics, thermoplastic-metal and thermoplastic-thermoset). In view of these industrial challenges, thermoplastic staking is an established forming process. At present, computer-aided development and precise FE-simulation (finite element-simulation) of these processes are not state-of-the-art. Accordingly, the previous design is based on subjective empirical values and empirical tests of the component. Within the framework of the paper, these gaps are to be closed by the development of numerical models for the heating and forming behavior of thermal plastic rivets (hot air staking) and the associated experimental validation. This requires the experimental development of the cause-effect relationships between melt formation and the resulting forming behavior. Finally, the numerical simulation shows a high conformity to the experimental data and allows an evaluation of the minimum heating time as well as initial approaches to evaluating the resulting structures by the simulation.