Adhesives are increasingly being used to replace traditional fastening methods such as welding, bolts and rivets, in industrial applications. In cars and other transport applications, weight reduction is a key factor in new developments, hence the use of lightweight adhesives is rapidly expanding.

Engineering and structural adhesives are high strength, designed to support loads. They are often subjected to severe environmental conditions, for example in external construction applications or pipe joints. Adhesives are used to bond many different material types including ceramics, metals, glass, plastics and composites. Composites are displacing many traditional materials in structural applications and the potential interaction of adhesive polymer systems with the materials being bonded is a particular advantage. Long-term performance is critical in many applications and adhesive joint strength and failure mechanisms have been studied.

The key advantages of adhesives include the distribution of loads across the entire joint area, excellent fatigue properties, the attenuation of mechanical vibrations and sound, sealant functions, a reduction in galvanic corrosion between dissimilar metals, and a faster more cost-effective assembly method.

There is a wide choice of adhesive types. Differences include curing characteristics, one- or two-component systems, varying physical and mechanical properties, and resistance to chemicals and moisture. Health and safety issues are also a consideration with adhesive selection (as with all chemicals), but the move away from halogenated solvent based systems is improving this situation.

The most important adhesives for structural and engineering applications are: anaerobics, epoxies, reactive acrylics, polyurethanes, reactive hot melt polyurethanes and cyanoacrylates. There are also speciality adhesives available for extreme temperature conditions, such as bismaleimides and polybenzimidazoles.

This Rapra Review Report discusses the types of adhesives in use, properties, advantages and disadvantages, and applications. It is very clearly written, well referenced and provides an excellent overview of a rapidly developing field. The author is an expert with many years of experience in adhesive research and development.

The review is accompanied by around 400 abstracts compiled from the Polymer Library, to facilitate further reading on this subject. A subject index and a company index are included.

Key features