Developing High Strength Adhesives for Metal- Polymer Bonding in Industrial and Strategic Applications

Abstract

An adhesive is a non-metallic compound that has a wide range of applications as compared to traditional methods. Silicones, acrylics, polyurethanes and epoxy are some major structural adhesives that are widely used in structural applications. Metal rubber bonding is important in many industrial sectors to achieve hybrid strength, durability and for damping. It provides elasticity and resistance to temperature and chemicals. But due to surface energy mismatch, manufacturing and inappropriate adhesive selection M-R bonding face challenges in high strength. To overcome this challenge epoxy is selected as an adhesive that has high strength, durability, high chemical and thermal resistance and having tunable properties via curing agents, fillers, coupling agents and modifiers. However, brittleness and restricted pot life limits its applications. So, by adding appropriate fillers, proper surface treatment, adding modifiers and coupling agents adhesion strength and toughness of epoxy enhanced. By incorporating filler content 3%, 5% and 7% with APTES and PEG diff content in epoxy resin and hardener adhesive is formulated. Mechanical and chemical surface treatment applied to steel metal plates, rubber and adhesive layer applied on steel plates and then placed in compression molding for bonding. By performing various characterization techniques Lap shear test, FTIR, XRD and SEM epoxy adhesive is characterized and from these techniques it observed that 5% filler content is optimal value and it gives 53MPa adhesion strength that is 85% highest then neat epoxy adhesive.