AD H ESIVES

FO R
SPECIFIC SU BSTRATES

CONTENT
INTRODUCTION TO ADHESIVES
ADHESIVES OFFER SEVERAL BENEFITS FOR THE
JOINING OF MATERIALS
IMPORTANT PROPERTIES OF ADHESIVES
PRETREATMENTS FOR METALS
PRETREATMENTS FOR INORGANIC MATERIALS
PRETREATMENTS FOR PLASTICS
REFERENCES

INTRODUCTION TO ADHESIVES
Anadhesiveis any substance applied to
the surfaces of materials that binds
them together and resists separation.
The term "adhesive" may be used
interchangeably with glue, cement,
mucilage, or paste.

IN TR O D U C TIO N TO
A D H ES IV ES
Adhesives are designed to hold materials together
by surface attachment, often as alternatives to
mechanical fastening systems.
They are often called glues by the do-it-yourselfer
or craftsman but engineers prefer the term
adhesives.
Adhesives come in several forms: thin liquids, thick
pastes,films, powders, pre-applied on tapes, or
solids that must be melted.

IN TR O D U C TIO N TO
A D H ES IV ES
Adhesives can be designed with a wide range of
strengths, all the way from weak temporary adhesives for
holding papers in place to high strength structural
systems that bond cars and aeroplanes.
In many industries, adhesives compete with mechanical
fastening systems such as nuts and bolts, rivets or
welding, and soldering.

AD H ESIVES O FFER SEVERAL

BEN EFITS FO R TH E JO IN IN G O F
M ATERIALS
They distribute loads across the entire joint area.
They show excellent fatigue properties.
They attenuate mechanical vibrations and sound.
Adhesives often fulfill a dual role of acting as both
adhesives and also sealing a joint against ingress of
water or other fluids. Because of their low electrical
conductivity, adhesives significantly reduce galvanic
corrosion between dissimilar metals.
They give unobtrusive bond lines.
Adhesive assembly is often much faster and more
cost-effective than mechanical methods.

IM P O R TA N T P R O P ER TIES O F
A D H ES IV ES
Rate of cure
Gap filling capability
Bonding dirty surfaces
Tensile shear strength
Peel strength
Impact resistance
Load bearing capability
Heat and cold resistance
Fluid resistance
Weatherability
Health and safety issues

 Treatments may be divided into physical and

chemical methods.
Physical treatments may remove cohesively weak
layers from a substrate.
Chemical treatments, which include the flame
treatment of plastics and anodising procedures
for metals, by definition cause chemical
modification to the surfaces involved.
It will be seen that different groups of materials,
i.e. metals, inorganic glasses,plastics, elastomers,
etc., tend to have their own specific
pretreatments.

PRETREATMENTS FOR METALS

Physical and chemical methods, often in
combination, are used to pretreat metals.
Physical methods, which include solvent
degreasing, abrasion and grit blasting, may be
sufficient if the bonding requirements are modest.
However, if,service conditions are demanding, for
example, if the joints will be exposed to water or to
high stresses, then it is likely that a chemical
treatment will be necessary.

PRETREATMENTS FOR METALS

Methods to pretreat aluminium have been
reviewed by Critchlow and Brewis.
Etching of aluminium with chromic acid was
found to give greatly enhanced performance
compared to physical methods.
However, anodising in chromic CAA or
phosphoric acids PAA was generally found to be
even more effective especially in relation to the
durability in wet conditions.

PRETREATMENTS FOR METALS

Chromic acid is highly toxic and corrosive; further,
anodising is a complex multistage process.
the use of silanes is a grit blasting process, the use
of conversion coating and plasma spraying.
Titanium alloys is used in aerospace and other
advanced technologies.

PRETREATMENTS FOR METALS

Steels are usually used in more mundane

applications than aluminium or titanium and
cost considerations demand relatively simple
pretreatments.
Grit blasting, sometimes in conjunction with a
silane, is often used with mild steel.
Stainless steel is likely to be used in more
demanding applications.

PRETREATMENTS FOR INORGANIC MATERIALS

inorganic materials include glasses, ceramics and concrete.
Although these materials are very different, the same factors
affect adhesion, namely surface chemistry, topography and the
cohesive strength of surface regions.
For example, a weak region might be represented by organic
grease on glass or a cement layer at a concrete surface. To
achieve high joint strengths it would be necessary to remove
both these layers. In the former case a solvent could be used.

PRETREATMENTS FOR INORGANIC MATERIALS

Glass has a high surface energy provided it is not covered
with an organic layer, and under dry conditions it is
relatively easy to obtain high joint strengths.
under wet conditions joint strengths may be greatly
reduced due to the strong interaction between glass and
water.
Silanes are usually applied in water, at a concentration of
about 1%.
Hydrolysis of the alkoxy groups occurs with the formation
of silanol groups.

 The silanol groups in the silane are able to react with a glass
surface to form a primary bond (Si-O-Si).
The X groups in the silane may be able to react with a chemical
group in the adhesive or alternatively chain entanglement
between the polysiloxane.
The hydrolysed silane thus acts as a bridge or coupling agent
between the glass and the polymer.

PRETREATMENTS FOR PLASTICS

Plastics and elastomers have much lower surface energies than
metal (oxides) or glass.
The interaction between polymers and adhesives is therefore
generally much lower than between metals (oxides) and
polymers.
For plastics containing suitable chemical functionality, for
example, the amide group in the case of nylon 66, it may be
possible to achieve satisfactory adhesion without a
pretreatment.
A cohesively weak layer exists on a plastic such as nylon 66
then a physical method to remove this layer may be perfectly
satisfactory. hence solvent degreasing or grit blasting are
frequently used with such plastics.

REFERENCES
Robert D Adams , Adhesive Bonding Science.