Decorative steel sheets, bonding

Meeting the increased demands of internal decorations for buildings with beautiful elevators, importance is attached to the design in order to advance the production of high-class products. As noted earlier, connection methods do not apply when vinyl chloride decorative steel sheets and stainless steel sheets with mirror surfaces are used as the material to make such panels. With SGA it is possible to bond in a short time at room temperature as mentioned in Section 5.3.1, so SGA is used. 

Fig. 5.15. Creep strength of bonded joints of decorative steel sheet coated with vinyl chloride and galvanized steel sheet bonded by SGA A6.

For applications such as cladding fire-rated bulkheads and doors in ships and other vessels decor papers have been bonded directly to thin steel sheet. However, for these purposes steel coated with PVC and thin continuous laminate bonded to steel now are used more commonly. 

Door panels have a sandwich structure consisting of aluminum or stainless steel surface plates and aluminum or paper honeycomb core bonded with two-part epoxy adhesives. On inspection lids, switchboard covers, and seat side panels, decorated aluminum sheets with melamine resin are bonded with second generation acrylic adhesives (SGAs) to aluminum frames or stiffeners. O Figure 47.9 shows the cross section of a railcar with adhesively bonded parts (Suzuki 2007). 

Plastic laminated sheets produced in 1913 led to the formation of the Formica Products Company and the commercial introduction, in 1931, of decorative laminates consisting of a urea—formaldehyde surface on an unrefined (kraft) paper core impregnated with phenoHc resin and compressed and heated between poHshed steel platens (8,10). The decorative surface laminates are usually about 1.6 mm thick and bonded to wood (a natural composite), plywood (another laminate), or particle board (a particulate composite). Since 1937, the surface layer of most decorative laminates has been fabricated with melamine—formaldehyde, which can be prepared with mineral fiUers, thus offering improved heat and moisture resistance and allowing a wide range of decorative effects (10,11). 

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