Roll bonding is a process for the production of material composites with two or more joining partners. The mechanical quality of the materials produced by cold roll bonding (CRB) is primarily dependent on the selection of a suitable surface pretreatment and the degree of plastic deformation employed. Even minor impurities and thin, native oxide layers along the contact area between the joining partners reduce the surface reactivity and prevent to establish a uniform and stable bonding zone. Thus, joining by CRB requires a very high degree of plastic deformation and, in most cases, a post-heat treatment. To circumvent these challenges of CRB within production, the joining process is often carried out as an energy-intensive hot forming process instead. An alternative approach offers manufacturing under a technical vacuum, which however cannot be economically implemented for mass production.

In light of this, a novel and effective way to overcome the described challenges by performing CRB under XHV(extremely high vacuum)-like conditions is proposed. By employing both, a mechanical preparation of the surfaces and rolling in an oxygen-free silane-doped atmosphere ($p_{O_2}$ < $10^{-19}$ Vol. %), the necessary plastic deformation for bonding can be significantly reduced compared to normal conditions. The achieved mechanical properties of the investigated copper-aluminum composite can thus be improved without the need of further heat treatment while remaining cold forming conditions.