Huntsman Provides Valuable Advice for Designing Adhesive Bonding Applications

Huntsman Advanced Materials is offering free advice to designers and design engineers looking to achieve the best performance from adhesive bonding, focused on the importance of designing components for bonding as a recommended alternative to simply taking a design made for mechanical fastening.

 Almost every industrial item produced is composed of components which need to be assembled. In many application areas, industrial adhesives have superseded mechanical joining as the assembly technique of choice with their ability to provide outstanding lap shear strength, reduced corrosion, less finishing operations, reduced assembly costs, improved product performance, durability and greater design freedom.

High performance adhesives harden through a chemical reaction and have a strong affinity to joint surfaces. However, in order to maximize these inherent advantages, joints need to be designed and pretreated in accordance with the adhesive selected and the application performance requirements.

As general guidelines for optimizing bonding performance, customers are advised to consider three essential factors; pre and post-application treatment and the loading conditions that bonded joints are subject to.

Pre and post-application treatment: Methods of application of the adhesive and the assembly of the components should always be taken into account at the design stage. In order to get the best performance from an adhesive bond, it is important to design the component for bonding rather than simply taking a design made for mechanical fastening. Together with the practical curing conditions, these determine the choice of adhesive type to be used.

To make a successful bond, the adhesive must wet the surfaces to be assembled, fill the gap between the two surfaces and then fully cure.

The best joints are achieved when the surfaces are absolutely clean and have good affinity to the adhesive. Poor surface conditions usually result in relatively low strength and reduced durability.

The bonding process requires a uniform and consistent surface preparation involving the removal of all foreign contaminants from the surfaces. A particular surface treatment may also be needed to improve the affinity for the adhesive.

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