Process and properties of preparing steel/aluminium composite plates by adding different interlayers through differential temperature rolling

Abstract When preparing steel/aluminium composite plates by the rolling method, it is difficult to achieve bonding at a low reduction ratio and the bonding strength is low due to the inconsistent deformation of steel and aluminium alloy. To address this issue, this paper proposes preparing steel/aluminium composite plates via induction heating differential temperature rolling and adding a thin aluminium alloy interlayer between carbon steel Q235 and aluminium alloy 5083(AA5083), which enables the fabrication of composite plates with high bonding strength at a relatively low reduction ratio. The results show that steel and aluminium can only achieve bonding at a reduction ratio of 44.2% without an interlayer. In contrast, after adding aluminium alloy 1060 (AA1060), AA5083, or aluminium alloy 6061(AA6061) interlayers, the rapid temperature rise on the steel side melts the interlayer. The molten interlayer facilitates favourable bonding between the steel and aluminium alloy, thus enabling excellent bonding at a reduction ratio ranging from 33.4% to 44.2%. Among the interlayers tested, the addition of the AA6061 interlayer results in the least formation of interfacial compounds. The shear fracture surface exhibits numerous ductile fracture characteristics, and the interfacial shear strength is the highest, reaching over 96 MPa.