Debonding of Structural Adhesive Joints: Fid-Bau Portal

Debonding of Structural Adhesive Joints

Banea, Mariana D.

Adhesive bonding is a viable technique for joining a wide range of materials (e.g. metals, polymers, ceramics, etc., and combinations of any of these materials). However, one disadvantage of adhesive bonding is the permanent character of the joint. In many situations (e.g. repair and disassembly processes), it is desirable that the joint can be separated easily, without damaging the substrates so that the materials can be reused. Thus, as a result of the significant pressure on reducing costs and increasing demand for material recyclability, the development of new techniques and processes for easy recycle and repair of bonded structures is becoming of great interest for the industry. This chapter presents the recent developments in the use of debonding technologies and summarizes the different strategies and approaches used for debonding of structural adhesive joints. The use of fillers in the adhesive which can be triggered by an external stimulus (e.g. heat: thermal and induction, electrical or magnetic flux) to induce mechanical separation of the substrates is discussed. It is concluded that there is no universally accepted debonding method due to the wide variety of adhesive bonded joint systems and applications. The selection of the appropriate debonding technique will depend on the particular application needs and constraints.