Replacing Steel with Aluminium and Nylon 6,6 in Rubber to Metal Bonding

摘要

Traditionally, rubber has been bonded to steel for fixing purposes or to alter stiffness. Preliminary studies have shown that lightweight aluminium alloys and nylon 6,6 can replace steel in rubber to metal bonding applications without compromising integrity and strength of the bond. When a carbon black filled natural rubber compound was bonded to aluminium and nylon 6,6 substrates, using commercial bonding agents, and then peeled at an angle of 90°either at a constant rate of grip separation or under constant load, the bond strength was almost identical to that measured for some rubber to steel bonded test pieces, prepared by the same procedure and tested under similar conditions. Moreover, peeling energies up to 24 kJ/m~2 were recorded for these bonds, and bond failure occurred in a time-dependent manner within the rubber somewhere between 20 and 70 μm from the covercoat. The bond failed either slowly, where the peel propagated along or parallel to the interface at rates down to ～ 10~(-6) mm/s, or rapidly, where the peel grew along the bond at rates reaching about 240 mm/s. Interestingly, these two modes of failure occurred randomly and unexpectedly in a single peel test.