Lightweight construction is an everlasting matter in the aviation and automotive industries. Efficient lightweight
construction can be achieved by using appropriate materials with their particular merits each in parts with locally
varying mechanical requirements. Therefore, an increasing use of material mix constructions is to be expected in
the future for example by Hufenbach et al. (2013). Metallic materials are already widely used and established in
most producing industries, among these especially steel and aluminium. They are distinguished for their favourable
all-round characteristics and comparatively low costs. Another type of material lately becoming established in the market are fibre-reinforced plastics. They are characterised by high strength and stiffness in fibre direction, but only permit low tensile stress crosswise and are difficult to join. Above all, the high costs of such parts due to time
and manpower intensive production methods limitate their wide spreading use.
The combination of metallic components, which are reasonably reinforced in highly stressed areas by fibrereinforced
plastics, suggests itself. However, the separate manufacturing of metallic components and a subsequent
reinforcing of often complex components with fibre-reinforced plastics would not be affordable. Therefore, a
procedure was developed, in which simple semi-finished products made of metal and fibre-reinforced
thermoplastics are formed in one shared step to a multi material part. The semi-finished products are placed in the
temperature-controlled deep drawing tools and are formed together to one joined part. The challenge in this process
consists mainly in the different forming characteristics of the components. The thermoplastic in the FRP must be
formed in a warm state. But partially or fully melted it is very soft in comparison to aluminium or even steel and its
forming behaviour is sensitive to temperature deviations. Therefore, the different forming properties of the
materials must be mastered and a good temperature control in the forming process is required.