Laser abrading of carbon fibre reinforced composite for improving paint adhesion

Surface contaminations (originating from manufacturing processes), smooth surface, and poor wettability of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite impair its successful paint adhesion. Surface pre-treatment of composite materials is often required. Previous approaches of using manual sand-papering result in non-uniform surface conditions and occasional damages to the fibres. Furthermore, the process is labour intensive, slow and can be hazardous to the workers if protections are not appropriate. This paper reports an investigation into a new surface treatment method based on laser multi-tasking surface abrading and surface cleaning/texturing for the improvement of paint adhesion. A KrF Excimer laser with a wavelength of 248 nm is used as the laser source. Significant improvement in paint adhesion has been demonstrated compared with as-received and sand-papered samples. This improvement is achieved by eliminating surface contaminants, minimizing chain scission and increasing in surface active functional groups as well as increasing in surface roughness. The former two play dominant roles.