No glue required: Wood and metal bonded with sound and 3D printing

Amazing stuff!

Don't get glued to this article! Better to stay glueless! 😊

"... researchers at the Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) in Austria took another approach. Two other approaches, actually, both of which achieved bonds between a variety of wood types and two types of plastics, stainless steel, and a titanium alloy.

In the first, the researchers used a 3D-printing process they termed "Addjoining." They were able to 3D print the various materials directly onto a piece of untreated wood in such a way that they penetrated the pores in the wood, forming a bond in much the same way an adhesive would. The team then snapped the bond apart. ...

The second joining technique the researchers came up with was called "Ultrasonic Joining." It used an instrument called a sonotrode to send high-frequency, low vibration waves through the juncture of the wood and the metal polymers. This created friction, which generated enough heat to bond the two materials together.

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No glue required: Wood and metal bonded with sound and 3D printing "Manufacturing could be dramatically changed thanks to two new techniques for joining materials created by scientists in Austria. The two methods create super strong bonds at the pore level, eliminating the need for caustic adhesives."

Alternatives in Car and Aircraft Construction: New Joining and Additive Manufacturing Processes Allow Adhesive-Free Joining of Wood and Metal "Using 3D printing technology and ultrasonic joining technique, researchers at TU Graz succeeded in attaining an extremely strong joining of the renewable raw material wood with metal and polymer composite."

In Ultrasonic Joining, wood and the base component are joined by frictional heat.