Common Metal-Joining Methods

It has often been observed that the application of adhesives to metal fabrication, in common with many other technological innovations, was pioneered by the aircraft industry. It is ironic that this industry, in which safety and reliability command paramount attention, should lead the departure from traditional methods of joining. Today adhesives are used to bond critical parts in commercial and military aircraft and helicopters, spacecraft, rockets, missiles and the US Space Shuttle. The American Primary Adhesively Bonded Structure Technology (PABST) Programme, which ran from 1976-81, was an imaginative attempt to advance significantly the use of bonded... 

Importantly, for a particular application, and where the metals to be joined have been specified, an overall metal bonding system should be considered. Typically, this will include selection of a suitable adhesive and possibly primer or coupling agent in combination with appropriate methods of surface preparation or pre-treatment. Organofunctional silanes (see Silane adhesion promoters) are commonly used coupling agents, which have been demonstrated to provide covalent chemical bonds with steel or aluminium surfaces and possess epoxide or amine functionality for reaction with Epoxide adhesives. 

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