Mechanical characteristics of some cold-cured structural adhesives

The potential for the greater exploitation of adhesives in building construction applications, together with the requirements of adhesives for such applications, is discussed. The important design and specification criteria are identified, as are the associated material and test requirements fo adhesives appropriate to building construction applications. A number of bulk adhesive and bonded joint property data obtained from cold-curing epoxy and polyurethane adhesives are discussed, and the test procedures used for obtaining them are described. Some new and efficient techniques for bulk adhesive specimen preparation and testing were used, and the data obtained were found to be in good agreement with results obtained independently on the same adhesive products. It is concluded that bulk property data may be used to predict the mechanical performance of bonded joints.