Adhesive bonding curing

The cured polymers are hard, clear, and glassy thermoplastic resins with high tensile strengths. The polymers, because of their highly polar stmcture, exhibit excellent adhesion to a wide variety of substrate combinations. They tend to be somewhat britde and have only low to moderate impact and peel strengths. The addition of fillers such as poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) reduces the brittleness somewhat. Newer formulations are now available that contain dissolved elastomeric materials of various types. These mbber-modifted products have been found to offer adhesive bonds of considerably improved toughness (3,4). 

The choice of initiator system depends on the polymerization temperature, which is an important factor in determining final product properties. Cold polymers are generally easier to process than hot polymers and in conventional cured mbber parts have superior properties. The hot polymers are more highly branched and have some advantages in solution appHcations such as adhesives, where the branching results in lower solution viscosity and better cohesion in the final adhesive bond. 

All of the types of repairs described can be accomplished using electron/X-ray curing and suitable electron-curable adhesive systems. The advantages ol using an electron accelerator are faster curing cycles, short turn-around time, and higher-temperature-resistant bonds, cured at ambient temperatures. 

The aluminum alloys most commonly bonded are 2024 bare, 2024 clad and 7075 bare. Clad 7075 was also used extensively in early bonded structure but was largely abandoned after service performance demonstrated that it was susceptible to rapid dissolution or corrosion of the clad layer. Naturally aged tempers such as T3, in particular 2024-T3 because of its widespread use, are restricted to bonding with adhesives that cure at 250°F or below in order to avoid adversely affecting the temper. Various other alloys and tempers are bonded to a lesser extent, though the dominance of 7075 and 2024 is decreasing as higher-performance alloys and tempers are adopted. 

For a typical assembly, first part qualification begins with a rigorous dimensional check and painstaking prefit of all details on the bond tool. The assembly details are placed on the tool without adhesive, close contact between bond surfaces is verified and any detail or tool interference is corrected prior to proceeding. This is followed by fabrication of a verification film , or a simulated bond cure cycle of the assembly to allow measurement of the adhesive bondline thickness. 

There are, of course, many more aspects of composite hardware design that differ from metallic bonded structure but do not necessarily involve adhesive bonding. For instance there are many types of reinforcement tape and fabric to choose from, the orientation of the plies must be chosen, the ply stackups must be balanced to avoid part warping after cure, a minimum number of plies must be used to prevent non-visible impact damage that significantly affects the load carrying capability of the part, etc. 

This paper describes an irradiation curing method which improves the mechanical, chemical, and thermal properties of multilayered flexible materials, increases the bond strength among the adhesively bonded layers, and provides flexible packages that can withstand the thermo-... 

The curing of the adhesive bonding is carried out by heat and pressure specific device, vacuum bagging, autoclave, press... 

The aging environments in which cured lap shear adhesive bonds were exposed included ... 

Adhesives based on hydrolysis resistant chemistry (i.e., adhesives D and E) show a high retention of initial properties after exposure to an aggressive corrosion environment and the failure occurs cohesively within the adhesive. The cure reactions of these adhesives involve the formation of hydrolysis resistant carbon-nitrogen bonds in reactions involving the free N-H functionality of the Versamid or Genamid hardener with the oxirane functionality of the epoxy resin that is present in the adhesive formulation ... 

As an aside, we note that the FDEMS sensor input information can also be used to detect the onset of phase separation in toughened thermoset systems and to monitor cure in thin film coatings and adhesive bond lines. It is particularly important that the FDEMS sensor is also very sensitive to changes in the mechanical properties of the resin due to degradation. As such, it can be used for accelerated aging studies and as a dosimeter to monitoring the composite part during use to determine the knockdown in the required performance properties with time. 

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