Adhesives

and bonded structures

John Summerscales
Outline of lecture

• Adhesive systems
o Anaerobic adhesives
o Cyanoacrylates
o Epoxies
o Phenolics
o Polyurethanes
o Others
• Good joint design
• Surface preparation
• Co-curing
Anaerobic adhesives
• acrylic-based adhesives
o normally cure in
 the presence of metal, and
 the absence of air (specifically atmospheric oxygen).

o normally used as thin layers for locking or sealing

o rapid cure time
o complementary to the cyanoacrylates.
Cyanoacrylates

• acrylic-based adhesives
o require moisture as a vital catalyst
o almost instantaneous curing
o normally used as thin layers
o complementary to the anaerobics
Epoxies
• Epoxide resin plus hardener
o usually two-part system
o premixed single part epoxy adhesives available.
o good adhesion to many materials
o high strength
o can be used for thicker joints
Phenolics
• phenol-formaldehyde resin systems
o one of the earliest synthetic adhesives
o still good performance in severe environments.
o health and safety issues
 formaldehyde considered carcinogenic
 phenols are acidic

o specialised equipment required

o complex procedures required.
Polyurethanes

• polyurethane chemistry
o usually isocyanate and alcohol
 isocyanates have
rigorous health and safety requirements.
o good for load-bearing applications in dry conditions
o susceptible to attack by moisture.
Other adhesive systems
• ultraviolet light curing systems
• plastisols
o based on PVC dispersions
• rubber solutions
o solvent evaporation effects bonding
• toughened adhesives
o any of the above families of adhesive
o incorporation of low molecular weight rubbers
 chemically incorporated in the polymer backbone, or
 physical particles.
Use of adhesives
• Adhesives can bond
o most materials in common engineering use
o especially useful where the substrates are
different materials.
• For optimum bonding, avoid:
o materials with weak or loose surface layers
o materials troubled by water migration,
solvent attack and/or stress cracking.
Advantages of adhesives
cf: welding, brazing, soldering or mechanical
fasteners
• lower temperature manufacture of joints
• joints without blemish, distortion or protrusions
• net weight of the joint is minimised
• stresses are more uniformly distributed
• resulting structure is normally
stiffer than for discretely welded/fastened joints
• increased fatigue life
• complex geometries relatively easy to make
• reduced capital and labour costs
• process de-skilled or completely automated
Good joint design
• essential for highly-stressed applications
• bonded joints:
o are best loaded in compression
o give acceptable performance in shear

o tension should be avoided

 especially peel: at least one component is flexible
 and cleavage: rigid components are involved.
Correct joint design
... redrawn from diagrams in The [Permabond]
Engineers Guide to Adhesives
• Compression good Shear OK

 
KEY: adhesive substrate
Wrong joint design
... redrawn from diagrams in The [Permabond]
Engineers Guide to Adhesives
• Peel (1 flexible) Cleavage (2 rigid)

x x
Joint design
... redrawn from diagrams in The [Permabond]
Engineers Guide to Adhesives

X

 
 
Joint design
... redrawn from diagrams in The [Permabond]
Engineers Guide to Adhesives

  
Surface preparation
• Surface preparation
o crucial to the achievement of a good bond
o for composites normally includes a
degrease-abrade-degrease-dry sequence.
o shot-blasting to abrade surface is inappropriate
 tends to remove too much substrate.
o plastic bead blasting (or similar blast media)
permits greater control of material removal.
Surface preparation
• wetting of the substrate by liquid depends on
the interfacial tensions for the three phases:
o solid/liquid (SL)
o liquid/vapour (LV)
o solid/vapour (SV) θ

• contact angle of <90° will result in wetting

o the substrate is hydrophilic when the liquid is water
• contact angle >90° will not result in wetting
o the substrate is hydrophobic when liquid is water
Surface preparation
• contact angle for smooth surface
described by Young's equation

• Wenzel modified Young's equation

to include roughness:
Co-curing
• For adhesively bonded composite components,
co-curing is often adopted:
o simultaneous post-cure of the laminate, and
o cure of the adhesive