SMU’s Research Center for Advanced Manufacturing (RCAM) has been studying the effect of complex physical phenomenon of cathodic arcs in cleaning oxides layer from aluminum alloys surface before welding. It has been observed that the cathode spot generation on the surface of non-thermionic substrate such as aluminum, titanium, etc. can texture the surface. The experimental studies  have shown that arc discharge can significantly increase the wettability of treated surfaces as well as the strength of the adhesive joint.

• Welding of aluminum alloys
• Adhesive bonding and painting

ADVANTAGES OF ARC SURFACE TREATMENT

• Environmentally friendly
• Rapid and single-step process
• Capability to treat 3D and/or complex geometry objects
• No damage to  bulk material
• Easily automated
• Economic al

RCAM’s CAP ABILITIES

(a) untreated coupon surface (b) treated coupon surface

• Performing adhesive bonding
• Surface characterization including optical profilometer, high accuracy vision system
• Microstructural analysis (access to SEM, EDS, etc.) and mechanical testing of materials ( tensile testing, microhardness, etc.)
• Real-time process monitoring  
• Numerical simulation

RECENT PUBLICATIONS:

• Sarrafi, R. and Kovacevic, R., “Cathodic Cleaning of Oxides from Aluminum Surface by Variable-Polarity Arc,” Welding journal, 89 (2010):1-s-10-s
• Rouzbeh Sarrafi, Mehdi Asgharifar, and Radovan Kovacevic “Surface Texturing of Metals by Cathode Spots of Atmospheric Arc” ASME Conf. Proc. 2 (2011): 323-329
•  Asgharifar, M., Kong, F., Carlson, B., Kovacevic, R., “Studying Effects of Arc Discharge Surface Texturing on Stress Distribution in Adhesively Bonded Joints by Using Finite Element Modeling” ASME Conf. Proc. 2 (2011): 1-7