Patent Application
20170291393
The subject matter generally relates to a composite article, and a method for making the composite article.
Hard inorganic non-metallic materials, such as glass, ceramic, and sapphire, are widely used in housings of electronic products. To have a beautiful appearance or some special functions such as preventing signal from being shielded, the housing of electronic product usually is assembled by connecting two or more components made of different inorganic non-metallic materials. However, inorganic non-metallic material usually has poor toughness and poor ductility, making it difficult to connect two inorganic non-metallic articles together without using adhesive material or bonding agent. However, conventional adhesive material and bonding agents yield poor bonding strength, such as shear strength, when being used to connect two inorganic non-metallic articles. It is desirable for an inorganic non-metallic article to be connected to a resin article first to form a composite article, and then the composite article can be connected to other components through the resin article.
Implementations of the present technology will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the attached figures.
It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, where appropriate, reference numerals have been repeated among the different figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements. In addition, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the exemplary embodiments described herein. However, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the exemplary embodiments described herein can be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, methods, procedures, and components have not been described in detail so as not to obscure the related relevant feature being described. Also, the description is not to be considered as limiting the scope of the embodiments described herein. The drawings are not necessarily to scale and the proportions of certain parts may be exaggerated to better illustrate details and features of the present disclosure.
The term “comprising” when utilized, means “including, but not necessarily limited to”; it specifically indicates open-ended inclusion or membership in the so-described combination, group, series, and the like.
The inorganic non-metallic article 10 is made of a hard inorganic non-metallic material. The hard inorganic non-metallic material may be glass, ceramics or sapphire.
The connecting layer 20 includes a first surface 21 and a second surface 22 opposite to the first surface 21. The first surface 21 is in contact with the resin article 30, and the second surface 22 is in contact with the resin article 30. The thickness of the connecting layer 20 is in a range from about 1×10−9 meters (1 nm) to about 1×10−3 meters (1 mm).
The first surface 21 includes a plurality of microstructures 211. A portion of the resin article 30 fills in the microstructures 211. The microstructures 211 include roughness elements and/or pores. When microstructures 211 include roughness elements, the surface roughness of the first surface 21 is in a range from about 1×10−9 meters to about 1×10−6 meters (1 μm). When microstructures 211 include pores, the pores include diameters in a range from about 1×10−9 meters to about 5×10−6 meters. The microstructures 211 can increase the contact area between the resin article 30 and the connecting layer 20, and form a strong mechanical connection between the resin article 30 and the connecting layer 20, thereby improving the bonding strength between the resin article 30 and the connecting layer 20.
In at least one exemplary embodiment, the connecting layer 20 includes only one layer of film. In another exemplary embodiment, the connecting layer 20 may includes two or more layers of film.
The connecting layer 20 is made of metal, alloy, metallic oxide, metallic carbide or metallic nitride. The metal may include Ti, Ni, Al, Ag, Pd, Au, Cu, Cr, or Zr. The alloy may include TiAl, TiW, TiCu, NiCr, or NiW. The metallic oxide may include TiO2, Al2O3, CuO, or ZrO2. The metallic carbide may include TiC, Cr4C3, ZrC, or WC. The metallic nitride may include AlN, TiN, or Cr2N.
In one exemplary implementation, the resin article 30 may include crystalline thermoplastic with a high fluidity, such as exemplified by polyphenylenesulfide (PPS), polyamide (PA), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), polycarbonate (PC), or polyethylene terephthalate (PET).
In another exemplary implementation, the resin article 30 may include glass fibers or carbon fibers. The glass fibers and carbon fibers can improve shock and heat resistance of the resin article 30. As the shock and heat resistance are improved, the resin article 30 can resist significant shrinking, tiling, or peeling from the inorganic non-metallic article 10 and the connecting layer 20.
At block 211, an inorganic non-metallic article 10 is provided. The inorganic non-metallic article 10 is made of glass, ceramics, or sapphire, for example.
At block 212, the surface of the inorganic non-metallic article 10 is pretreated by a surface pretreatment. The surface pretreatment can remove oil, fat, and grease on the surface of the inorganic non-metallic article 10.
The surface pretreatment can be carried out by the following steps: (1) putting the inorganic non-metallic article 10 into an ultrasonic cleaner (not shown) with a cleaning agent; (2) ultrasonically cleaning the inorganic non-metallic article 10 for about 2 minutes to about 10 minutes. The cleaning agent is alcohol or acetone.
At block 213, referring to
The connecting layer 20 includes a first surface 21 and a second surface 22 opposite to the first surface 21. The second surface 22 is in contact with the inorganic non-metallic article 10. The connecting layer 20 includes one or more layers of film. The thickness of the connecting layer 20 is in a range from about 1×10−9 meters to about 1×10−3 meters. The connecting layer 20 is made of metal, alloy, metallic oxide, metallic carbide or metallic nitride. The metal may include Ti, Ni, Al, Ag, Pd, Au, Cu, Cr, or Zr. The alloy may include TiAl, TiW, TiCu, NiCr, or NiW. The metallic oxide may include TiO2, Al2O3, CuO, or ZrO2. The metallic carbide may include TiC, Cr4C3, ZrC, or WC. The metallic nitride may include AN, TiN, or Cr2N.
In at least one exemplary embodiment, the connecting layer 20 is formed by sputtering. The sputtering can be carried out by the following steps: (1) putting the inorganic non-metallic article 10 into a sputtering chamber of a plasma assisted deposition sputtering machine (not shown); (2) covering the surfaces of the inorganic non-metallic article 10 that don't need to form connecting layer 20; (3) installing a titanium target in the sputtering chamber; (4) vacuum pumping the sputtering chamber such that the sputtering chamber has a vacuum degree about 1.0×10−4 Pa; (5) filling the sputtering chamber with argon gas as a working gas, the gas flow of the argon is in a range from about 30 CCM (Cubic centimeter per minutes) to about 50 CCM; (6) starting the sputtering machine, and sputtering the exposed surface of the inorganic non-metallic article 10 for about 5 minutes to about 120 minutes. The power of the titanium target is in a range from about 500 W to about 800 W.
In other exemplary embodiments, the connecting layer 20 maybe formed by chemical vapor deposition, vacuum evaporating, spray coating or sol-gel method.
At block 214, referring to
The microstructures 211 include roughness elements and/or pores. When microstructures 211 include roughness elements, the surface roughness of the first surface 21 is in a range from about 1×10−9 meters to about 1×10−6 meters. When microstructures 211 include pores, the pores include diameters in a range from about 1×10−8 meters to about 5×10−5 meters.
The surface treatment is a surface roughening treatment or a surface pore-forming treatment. The surface roughening treatment or the surface pore-forming treatment may include chemical etching, exposure and development, electrochemical etching, or laser etching.
In at least one exemplary embodiment, the surface treatment is electrochemical etching. The first surface 21 of the connecting layer 20 is put into an electrolyte, the electrolyte includes hydrogen ion (H+), the molar ratio of the hydrogen ion is in a range from about 0.1 mol/L to about 5 mol/L, and the current of the electrochemical etching is in a range from about 0.1 A/dm2 to about 3 A/dm2, the time of the electrochemical etching is in a range from about 1 minutes to about 20 minutes.
At block 215, referring to
The injection molding apparatus 300 includes a top mold 301 and a bottom mold 302. The top mold 301 includes a plurality of sprue gates 3011 and a first cavity 3012. The first cavity 3012 is configured to form the resin article 30. The bottom mold 302 includes a second cavity 3021. The second mold 3021 is configured to receive the inorganic non-metallic article 10. The inorganic non-metallic article 10 is placed into the second cavity 3021, and the top mold 301 covers the bottom mold 302. Then, crystalline thermoplastic is injected into the first cavity 3012 through the sprue gates 3011. The crystalline thermoplastic solidifies to form the resin article 30. Although the first surface 21 of the connecting layer 20 in
The composite article 100 was tested for bond strength. The test results showed that the bond strength between the inorganic non-metallic article 10 and the resin article 30 is greater than 20 Mpa.
The exemplary embodiments shown and described above are only examples. Even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present technology have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structures and function of the present disclosure, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes can be made in the detail, including in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of the parts within the principles of the present disclosure, up to and including the full extent established by the broad general meaning of the terms used in the claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 201610214958.X | Apr 2016 | CN | national |
