To enhance the mechanical properties and surface quality of PET composite aluminum foil fabricated by vacuum evaporation, an L9 (34) orthogonal experiment was performed to explore the influences of cooling roll temperature, evaporation boat voltage, tension roll force, and bias current on tensile strength, elongation, and surface morphology. Evaporation boat voltage had the most significant effect on tensile strength, whereas bias current mainly controlled elongation. The optimal parameters were identified as −30 °C, 10.5 V, 55 N, and 35 mA. Under these conditions, sample CAF-10 reached a tensile strength of 262.8 MPa and an elongation of 58.28% with a defect-free surface. A strong negative correlation between tensile strength and elongation was observed. Better interfacial bonding increased strength but reduced elongation, presenting an obvious trade-off. Overly high temperature or tension led to material defects and degraded the composite strength. These results validate the feasibility of orthogonal optimization and offer technical support for the industrial manufacturing of high-performance PET composite aluminum foil.
San et al. (Wed,) studied this question.