Abstract One of the essential advantages of sandwich elements is high rigidity combined with low weight. These characteristics are ideal for the realization of large structures subjected to stress. Nevertheless, in the application of mechanical engineering most of the sandwich elements are used for subordinate tasks. The substantial reason for this is the missing existance of a generally suitable joining technology for those elements. This essay represents the first part of the research project which is to describe the systematic development of all principle solutions and their evaluation on the basis of systematic engineering design.
