THE EFFECT OF INTERFACIAL MORPHOLOGY ON THE BOND STRENGTH BETWEEN RUBBER-TOUGHENED EPOXY ADHESIVE AND ALUMINIUM

摘要

This study provided evidence that certain surface treatments of an Alclad 2024-T3 aluminium alloy could induce the segregation of a rubber-rich phase at a liquid rubber-toughened epoxy adhesive/aluminium interface, which proved to have a detrimental effect on the bond strength of DLS-joint. This is of significant importance to the development of new adhesive formulations or aluminium surface treatments. On the other hand, when a film adhesive was used, no segregation phenomenon was observed, regardless of the aluminium surface treatment and a strong bond was obtained. Finally, priming the aluminium surfaces prior to bonding seemed to prevent this segregation phenomenon from happening regardless of the adhesive used. The origin of this segregation phenomenon is still unclear and is currently being investigated.