The Uncomfortable Shift From Mechanical Fasteners to Adhesive Bonding

Manufacturing doesn’t change easily. People get used to things being the way they are. Nobody likes it when someone comes along and says, “Hey, I think we can make this better.” So we go on, happily using bolted connections, welded joints, and pressed parts. We like the way things are.

There’s a revolution taking place in the area of mechanical fasteners, and this time it’s not happening in one area but across the board. Instead of using screws, bolts, and rivets, manufacturers are using adhesive to hold things together. For Metal bonding adhesive, consider www.ct1.com/product-applications/metal-to-metal-adhesive/

Adhesives are becoming increasingly useful, and that’s partly because of the growing use of composites, including carbon fibre. With composites, manufacturers are no longer limited to using one material throughout the whole product. They can mix and match to get the desired characteristics in the various components.

It’s difficult to make good-looking joints with bolts or screws. It’s easy to make good-looking joints with adhesives. All you have to do is apply the right amount of adhesive to the right surfaces, and the parts will bond together when they’re put under pressure.

Adhesives can bond a variety of materials that can’t be joined mechanically, such as carbon fibre and aluminium or steel. Carbon fibre is good for applications where lightness is important. It’s hard to drill into carbon fibre, but easy to glue it to. Adhesives can also bond different types of composites together.

Fasteners leave holes in parts that you can’t always avoid, and in those areas, you need a different type of repair. Holes are problematic because they create a place for moisture to get in and cause corrosion, which can compromise the structure of the part.