Rise of the Super Glue
FEATURES
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Trimming Automotive Weight With Adhesives
Credit: Nick King for the WSJ
MEDIA SPOTLIGHT – Cars increasingly are held together by glue—as are airplanes, phones and myriad other items, the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The process of substituting adhesives for welds, rivets, screws and bolts has been so gradual over recent decades that few people have noticed,” the Journal reports.
But that process is quickening as car manufacturers “struggle to make vehicles lighter to meet tougher fuel-economy requirements.”
“Bonding [with adhesives] is the new welding,” Dow automotive unit president Steve Henderson told the Journal.
Basic metallurgy and chemistry favor bonding.
“Aluminum doesn’t readily weld to steel but can be glued,” the Journal found. “Carbon fiber and other composite materials lend themselves more to glues than screws.
But adhesive makers trying to capitalize on the $2 billion bonding market face challenges, including “finding ways for adhesives to withstand higher temperatures” and overcoming design engineers’ preference for reliable metal fasteners.
About 27 pounds of adhesives go into the typical car today, up from 18 pounds a decade ago, the Journal found.
Use of adhesives goes back more than half a century in cars and airplanes. Windshields have been held in place by adhesives since the early 1960s.
“But are adhesives as safe as welds, rivets or screws?” the Journal asked.
Industry experts say a half-inch overlap of metal glued together can handle almost 6,500 pounds of force per square inch before it breaks. But only under moderate temperatures.
“Adhesives don’t perform well at very high temperatures, so bolts and other fasteners are typically used to hold engine components together.”
The biggest obstacle adhesives makers face is psychological, according to the Journal.
“Many engineers aren’t trained in adhesives and feel more comfortable with nuts and bolts. After all, it is easy to check whether a screw is tight, but harder to see whether glue has been applied right.”
Click here to read the Journal’s full article.
Editor’s Note: Articles in Media Spotlight are excerpts from publications or broadcasts, which show the industry what the public is reading or hearing about fasteners and fastener companies.
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