Joining dissimilar materials has long posed a challenge for design engineers. However, by combining different technologies such as adhesive bonding and mechanical fasteners, manufacturers can create strong, rigid assemblies that incorporate the best of both worlds.
Hybrid joining comes in many different forms, but is typically defined as "the combination of two or more joining techniques to produce joints with properties additional to those obtained from a single technique," says Ewen Kellar, principal project leader of the polymers group at The Welding Institute (TWI, Cambridge, England). "The most common types of hybrid joints are used for joining sheet materials and involve an adhesive in conjunction with a single-point joint technique, such as a rivet."