Adhesive bonding in manufacturing
The integration of adhesive bonding into industrial manufacturing requires an approach tailored to the specific application. Adhesive selection must take into account the requirements for the end product and for the manufacturing process. The design of bonded joints is based on analytical or numerical calculation. This is based on experimental characteristic values of materials, joints and components. At the same time, the flow and curing properties are characterized in order to design the manufacturing process. For demanding bonded joints or for difficult surfaces, pretreatment of the component surfaces is often necessary. The materials are cleaned and activated or modified so that adhesives can adhere to them for a long time. The aging behavior must be analyzed and thus the service life estimated. The dispensing and application technology are part of the automated joining process. Rapid curing processes are often used to reduce cycle times. Reliable production integrates quality assurance procedures and requires qualified personnel.
Adhesive bonding applied
Bonding processes have to be designed individually: In the transportation industry's body-in-white bonding of automotive construction, windscreen bonding of rail vehicle construction and sandwich bonding of aviation differ greatly from each other. Micro-bonding in electronics requires special adhesives and boundary conditions, as the adhesive quantities are millions of times lower than those for bonding in civil engineering. Medical technology places new demands on the safety and biocompatibility of adhesives. In the aerospace sector, it must be noted that adhesives can be used at extremely high and extremely low temperatures. In the packaging industry, on the other hand, manufacturing costs and speeds play a decisive role.
Consulting around adhesive bonding
The range of services covers the entire bonding process chain and adhesive selection, characterization of the mechanical as well as the processing properties of adhesives, design and validation of bonded structures, thermoanalytical, spectroscopic, rheological, physical characterization, development and application of dispensing and application processes, consulting on quality assurance of bonding processes, customer-specific design of industrial processes, testing and production of adhesive tapes, analysis of damage cases and elimination of production faults.
The range of services is complemented by many years of experience in the polymer-chemical formulation of adhesives and by the diverse possibilities of surface pretreatment and surface analysis. The long-established, comprehensive and globally offered portfolio of further training in adhesive bonding technology, with versatile courses and globally recognized qualifications, completes the range of services. The verification of the standard-compliant implementation of industrial bonding technology based on DIN 2304 "Adhesive Bonding Technology - Quality Requirements for Adhesive Bonding Processes" and DIN 6701 " Adhesive Bonding of Rail Vehicles and Vehicle Parts" is also part of the range of services. Fraunhofer IFAM also provides approved auditors for both standards.
Current research goals in the field of adhesive bonding
Electromobility |
Development and characterization of thermally or electrically conductive bonded joints in battery modules or powertrains |
Hybrid joining |
Reduction of defects during bonding in combination with mechanical joining processes such as riveting, hemming or clinching |
Fast processes |
Accelerated adhesive curing through thermal excitation or fast handling strengths through new dual-cure adhesives |
Aging |
Understanding the aging behavior of adhesives and applying quick tests for safe dimensioning |
Adhesive bonding in civil engineering |
Development of adhesive bonding for load-bearing civil structures in window construction, facade construction, timber construction and heavy steel construction |
Quality assurance |
Development of new methods for inline control of sub-steps of the bonding process |
Development of standards for quality assurance |
Transfer of DIN 6701 into a European standard (EN 17460) and DIN 2304 into an ISO standard (ISO 21368) |
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