Purpose This paper aims to discuss the effect of surface treatment on the wettability between copper and a lead-free solder paste. The industrial applications of laser technologies are increasing constantly. A specific laser treatment can modify the surface energy of copper and affect the wetting properties. Design/methodology/approach The surfaces of copper plates were treated using an Nd:YAG laser with varying laser powers. After laser surface treatment, wetting experiments were performed between the copper plates and SAC305 lead-free solder paste. The effect of laser treatment on copper surface was analysed using optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Findings The experimental results showed that the wetting contact angles changed with the variation in laser power. Furthermore, it means that the surface energy of copper plates was changed by the laser treatment. The results demonstrated that the contact angles also changed when a different soldering paste was used. Originality/value Previous laser surface treatment can be a possible way to optimize the wettability between solders and substrates and to increase the quality of the soldered joints.

The development of bonding technology and coating technologies require the use of modern materials and topologies for the demanding effect and modification of their wetting properties. For the industry, a process modification process that can be integrated into a process is the atmospheric pressure of air operation plasma surface treatment. This can be classified and evaluated based on the wettability, which has a significant impact on the adhesive force. The aim is to improve the wetting properties and to find the relationship between plasma treatment parameters, wetting, and adhesion. High Impact PolyStyrene (HIPS) was used as an experimental material, and then the plasma treatment can be treated with various adjustable parameters. The effect of plasma parameters on surface roughness, wetting contact angle, and using Fowkes theory of the surface energy have been investigated. Seven different plasma jet treatment distances were tested, combined with 5 scan speeds. Samples with the best plasma parameters were prepared from 25 mm × 25 mm overlapping adhesive joints using acrylic/cyanoacrylate. The possibility of creating a completely hydrophilic surface was achieved, where the untreated wetting edge angle decreased from 88.2° to 0° for distilled water and from 62.7° to 0° in the case of ethylene glycol. The bonding strength of High Impact PolyStyrene was increased by plasma treatment by 297%.

Innovative surface technology processes offer a wide range of surface preparation options, allowing engineers to make major changes to the properties of products. Surface modification can also improve the quality and the strength of the bond created by technologies such as bonding, painting, coating, sealing and other adhesion. By activating molecular groups on the surface, wetting properties can be improved, while altering the microtopography of the surface can create roughness and texture. Surface modification suitable for industrial conditions in cold plasma surface modification. The the wetting boundary angles are measured with ethylene glycol and distilled water, and the results are used to calculate the surface free energy of the modified surface in mN/m according to Fowkes surface free energy theory. The demonstration of adhesion improvement of specimens with good wetting surfaces should be carried out by a series of bonding experiments, showing the changes in strength due to surface treatment. In addition, the technical advantages obtained by modifying the topography can be characterised by examining the separated surfaces.

Nowadays the stakeholders of vehicle industry are focusing on making materials and technologies for motor-vehicle bodies that satisfy the newest requirements. Reduction of the manufactured vehicle's dead load – while the important material properties of proper functioning only change in a small degree – is such a requirement. There exist many solutions to satisfy this requirement. One of them is when the materials are in the same group, but the material with higher strength is used with less thickness. Reducing mass should be searched in recent high strength steels. Evidently, to reduce dead load, manufacturers use steels with different strength, depending on the function of the given structural component. The advantages of steels with increased strength is the reduced cost of manufacturing and to make the hybrid material couplings cheaper as well. However, malleability is one of the key issues of manufacturing body components, so common use of basic and increased strength steels is necessary. The connection between the standard (DC) and increased strength (DP) steels design is one way for the binding established by brazing, which has several advantages over welding. In this paper MIG brazing is formed between the DC-DP steel pairs and examine changes in the surface properties and the interfacial layer. The results shows there are differences between the DC and DP side of the joint.

In our research the effect of a new type of laser beam parameters during the laser welding have been investigated with 80 different welding parameters. The laser welding parameters such as the laser power, laser beam spot size on the surface and feed rate greatly affect the resulting weld geometry. S235 grade steel has been used. The operating equipment was a Trumpf 4001 4 kW disk laser with a diameter of 100 microns optical fiber. The effect of different welding parameters were evaluated from the metallographic cross-section of the welded joints. This article describes the effect of the different laser beam focusing and the welding feed rate.