Smart cure cycle to improve tensile load strength of the adhesively bonded joint

Abstract

Generally, the thermal residual stress which is generated during the curing process of the adhesive decreases much tensile load capability of adhesively bonded joints. In this work, the smart cure cycle with abrubt cooling and post curing at room temperature was devised to eliminate the thermal residual stress and obtain sufficient interfacial wetting simultaneously. For monitoring and controlling of the curing reaction, the dielectrometry was used, where the dissipation factor of adhesive joint was measured. From these results, it was found that the mechanical properties of adhesively bonded joint fabricated by the smart cure cycle, was greatly enhanced because the thermal residual stress was reduced and the sufficient interfacial wetting between adhesive and adherend was achieved simultaneously.