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2005-01-1747
SAE TECHNICAL
PAPER SERIES

Structural Adhesive Bonding: The Most

Innovative Joining Technique for Modern
Lightweight Design, Safety and Modular
Concepts -Progress ReportDetlef Symietz
Dow Automotive, Switzerland

Reprinted From: Adhesives, Sealings and Gaskets

(SP-1961)

2005 SAE World Congress

Detroit, Michigan
April 11-14, 2005
400 Commonwealth Drive, Warrendale, PA 15096-0001 U.S.A. Tel: (724) 776-4841 Fax: (724) 776-5760 Web: www.sae.org

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2005-01-1747

Structural Adhesive Bonding: The Most Innovative Joining Technique

for Modern Lightweight Design, Safety and Modular Concepts
-Progress ReportDetlef Symietz
Dow Automotive, Switzerland

Copyright 2005 SAE International

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION

Automobile manufacturers strive to meet numerous

expectations in the assembly of cars imposed by customers
and government regulations. These include vehicle weight
reduction, crashworthiness, durability, driving performance
and reduced NVH (Noise/Vibration/Harshness) levels. Some
of the solutions to these requirements can have conflicting
effects. For example, increasing vehicle mass to improve
crashworthiness and NVH performance will increase fuel
consumption. Modern lightweight design methods utilizing
the full potential of new materials and joining techniques can
enable the development of vehicles which simultaneously
satisfy these conflicting performance requirements.
Structural adhesive bonding is one of the key tools in this
effort. To date, structural adhesives are mainly used in
conjunction with other joining methods in what is referred to
as hybrid bonding. New multi-material designs and
modern vehicle assembly approaches are now possible thanks
to the use of structural adhesives. Such adhesively bonded
designs have led to various improvements, including
resistance to dynamic fatigue, body stiffness, crash
performance compared with other conventional joining
methods, and improved corrosion resistance.
In this paper the practical experiences of Dow Automotive
and our European customers that have implemented crash
durable structural adhesives into vehicle design and assembly
operations is presented. Also, the environment and health
aspect is discussed. A definition for the class of such crash
durable adhesives is presented. Structural adhesive bonding
is a key approach to making cars better, safer and reducing
their environmental impact.

The paper reviews the experience with structural crash

durable bonding over the last few years.
In 1986, a question was raised, Can adhesives meet the
challenge of vehicle bodyshell construction? The answer
stated that improvements are needed by adhesives, body
design and manufacturing processes. Otherwise, the adhered
body would remain very much a concept rather than a reality
(1). Now the situation has changed by unique toughened
adhesives as evidenced by the statement Modern light weight
design, safety and modular concepts can no longer do without
adhesively bonded joints and the strength they provide in a
crash scenario (2).
I define structural adhesive bonding for automotive body
design as:
A durable and stiff joint between high strength, stiff parts
suitable for crash relevant areas.
Durable is defined as the full service time of the car. Stiffness
means in the case of adhesives Young`s moduli on order
10E3 MPa, and in the case of materials to bond Young`s
moduli of 10E5 MPa.
By this definition, a clear differentiation to other bonding
types, e.g. direct glazing, is possible.
Besides the main approach of better engine technology, the
lightweight concept is one of the key tools to meet the
requirements for a car averaging 140 g CO2 emission/km in
2008. Currently, the ACEA members (Automotive Car
Manufacturer European Association) have reached 160
g/km.
New materials including high strength steels,
aluminum alloys but also material mix design require suitable
joining methods. Adhesive bonding is a possible choice.

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ADVANTAGES OF CRASH DURABLE STRUCTURAL

BONDING

TOUGHENING AND FUNCTIONAL PRINCIPLE OF NEW

ADHESIVE GENERATION

The contribution of the adhesive bonding technique to car

manufacturers` needs can be summarized as:

High strength epoxy adhesives have been well known for

many industrial applications for many decades. The use of
structural bonding in the body in areas with required
crashworthiness was not possible. Although the old adhesive
types improved, rubber toughened epoxies did not perform
sufficiently at high deformation speeds (crash) and especially
at low temperatures. The new adhesive generation is based on
an innovative toughening principle. It is shown in Figure 2.
The main toughener of the adhesive is a reaction product that
is compatibly dispersed in the uncured adhesive matrix.
Synchronously with the curing in the electrocoat oven, small
islets with a size between a few hundred to a few thousand
nanometers are produced. They are also chemically linked
with the epoxy matrix. The viscosity of the uncured adhesive
is not strongly influenced, but the toughening efficiency is far
above that of just rubber-toughened adhesives.

Best for multi-material design

Better body stiffness

Higher operation durability

Improved crash performance

Less corrosion

Improved Noise/Vibration/Harshness (NVH)

High application speed

The adhesive bonding allows large-area bonds with a more

uniform stress distribution. Additionally, it is electrically
insulating and allows joining metals having different places
in the electrochemical series. This helps to avoid galvanic
corrosion.
The adhesive has also a sealing function so that in many
areas, which are not so heavily under water attack, an
additional sealing operation is not more needed.
The green strength of the uncured adhesive is low, as is the
case with warm applied products. The combination with
other joining techniques, so called hybrid bonding, solves this
problem. The only adhesively bonded joint shows the best
dynamic fatigue performance, even better as spot weldbonded connections. Figure 1 shows the test results for some
single and hybrid joints, evaluated from Woehler curves. The
explanation is that the high temperatures at welding change
the
metallic
structure
resulting
in
a
certain
weakening.Typically, a conventional automotive body which
is spot welded might have 4000 weld spots (with an average
distance of about 40 mm between welds). With spot weld
bonding, the average number of weld spots can be reduced to
2000 (corresponding to 80 mm between welds.Then the
process is faster, air pollution is reduced, and the weakening
effect is lower but the strength to guarantee the safe
mechanical handling of the parts before the curing process is
sufficient.
30
1: spotwelding
25

2: clinching

Load amplitude [kN]

3: self piercing riveting

20

4: spotweld bonding
5: adhesive bonding

15

10

0
1

Figure 1: Dynamic fatigue performance of various

joining techniques

Chemically linked
toughener

Epoxy matrix

Figure 2: New toughening principle

The glass transition temperature must be above the working
range of the structural bond. This ensures that the stiffness
function of the adhesive is not infringed by the
crashworthiness/toughness of the bond.
The glass
temperature is in the order of 90 C to 100 C. Figure 3
shows a general loss factor and modulus-temperature curve.
Flexible polyurethane adhesives as used for direct glazing
always work in the region III in the figure, far above their low
glass temperature. Structural adhesives have their working
range in region I, below their transition temperature.
Physical mechanical properties like strength, modulus and
elasticity are only slightly influenced by changes of the
ambient temperature.

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one point is about three seconds and the application speed of

a streamable adhesive is about 500 mm/s, then this is a clear
advantage for time and cost.
Adhesives can be combined as hybrid bonding with most of
the other joining methods from spotwelding, riveting,
clinching, screwing or laser tack-welding. Sometimes quasisynergistic effects have been observed. In lab shear tests, it
was found that the energy consumption of a clinched
connection was below that of a spotwelded joint. But
spotweld-bonded joints did show less energy uptake than
clinch-bonded joints. Near the spot weld joint, the high
welding temperatures and the metal weakened degrades the
adhesive.

Figure 3: Modulus Temperature Curve

The new adhesives combine strengths high enough to deform

the bonded metal above its yield point with its own
deformation capable of withstanding the metal deformation in
the bonded area. The main part of the crash energy uptake is
coming from the metal deformation. The high strength
toughened epoxy adhesive is the key required for it to happen.
This suggests that brittle materials such as magnesium are
not real alternatives for crash relevant applications. In such a
case, the energy uptake by the adhesive itself increases in
importance.
The larger bonded area acts positive in
comparison with spot like or line like connections but the
crash performance is inferior to bonded steel. The design of
the joint (area, metal dimensions) must consider the strength
performance of the adhesive and of the metal. Thick parts
and small bonded areas may otherwise lead to adhesive
failure.

COMPARISON WITH OTHER JOINING TECHNIQUES

Table 1 contains a survey on various joining methods
(thermal, mechanical and adhesive)
Table 1: Comparison of car body joining techniques

Joining Technique

Multimaterial
Design

Body Stiffness

Crashworthiness

Operational
Durability

Corrosion
Resistance

NVH

Application
Speed
+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

++

++

Spotwelding

Clinching

Riveting

Screwing

Laserwelding

++

++

++

Bonding

+ = good 0 = moderate
++ = very good
+++ = excellent

- = poor

There is no single favoured method but spot welding is by far

the most commonly used technique. Considering material
mix for lightweight design, as well as higher process speed,
adhesive bonding performs as a very competitive joining
method. This is also valid for hybrid bonding methods. The
spotweld distances can be reduced. When the needed time for

EXPERIENCE FROM THE FIELD

Meanwhile millions of cars in Europe have been built using
the new crash durable adhesives. The first experiences over
some years prove an excellent performance. Such modern
cars have bondline lengths of up to 150 m. In average about
100 m of the flanges are adhesively bonded. All relevant
body materials and material combinations are in practical
use: aluminum body, steel/aluminum hybrid body, steel body
with various grades of mild, high strength, and ultra high
strength steels.
In case of high strength steels, the dimensions can be reduced
so that the same performance is reached but with less weight.
These steel types with higher strength and higher yield limit
do have a softer dynamic deformation characteristic. This
means to behave at higher deformation speeds closer to a
normal, mild steel and so the adhesives energy uptake will
function similar as discussed earlier.
The experience with normal produced cars shows an
outstanding result of operational durability. In Table 2 we can
see the torsion stiffness for a spotwelded and a spotweld
bonded car before and after four years driving on the road.
The stiffness advantage of the bonded car did increase after
this road operation. The performance gap enlarged strongly.

Table 2: Car operation durability comparison: Spotwelded

versus spotweld bonded

Body Rigidity
(Torsion)
New car
After 4 years
road operation
X:

Spotwelded Design

Structural Bonded/
Spotwelded

100%
80%

120% ( = 20%)
115% ( = 44%)

- 20%

- 5%

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Car manufacturers report about weight reduction coefficient

(how much weight can be saved by use of one kg structural,
crash durable adhesive) of about 20 kg. This is dependent on
the model but shows the order (3).
Switching to structural adhesive bonding increases the static
and dynamic rigidity. In practice the figures for gain in
rigidity do cover model specific a wide range. In reference
(2), data are given for four different cars. The static rigidity
did increase e.g. by 13%, 14.5%, 15% and 27%. The dynamic
rigidity increased by (1.5 2) Hz.
With the Oberst method (DIN 53440) it has been measured
that adhesive bonded metal strips have a significant higher
loss factor than spot welded strips. But raising the body
resonance frequency causes the main positive influence onto
NVH.
For many decades there has been an ongoing increase in car
weight. The history of a well-known European compact car
starting in the 1970s with its first generation having about
750 kg; now the fifth generation has 1200 kg.
Another car manufacturer could stop this weight spiral by a
design where the whole front module is from aluminum. It is
then joined to the other steel body section by hybrid bonding
(self-piercing riveting plus adhesive). The riveting supplies
the initial strength; the adhesive is responsible for crash
durability and for avoiding galvanic corrosion. Without
structural adhesive bonding this design is hard to imagine (4).
Repair solutions do exist. For this purpose we have
developed two-part epoxy adhesive versions with improved
crash stability. It is known that older adhesives of this type
have been very brittle. An improvement was essential. The
repair does not need higher temperatures, but a certain
increase using the paint repair oven in the garage helps to
accelerate the curing process. For normally repaired smaller
sections it is acceptable that the crash performance is inferior
to the one-part heat cure types. The parts to bond during the
repair must be clean because the room temperature cure
system is not absorbing oil like happens in the electrocoat
oven at e.g. 180 C.
For broader and optimized use of adhesively bonded joints in
the car simulation/calculation is a crucial tool. Currently the
joints are clearly oversized due to this lack. A complete
solution is still missing, but here significant progress can be
reported (5).

PROGRESS IN ADHESIVES PERFORMANCE

Physical mechanical and rheological properties have been
improved over the time. The viscosity is now lower but the
yield point is higher, this increases the wash-off resistance
and allows higher application speed.
The temperature
dependance of impact peel strength could be reduced, see
table 3
Table 3: Performance progress with structural, crash durable
adhesives
Property

Status 1999

Status 2004

Yield point, 45C [Pa]

250

350

Viscosity, 45C [Pas]

200

50

ISO 11 343
Impact peel
[N/mm]
at + 23C
at 40C

40
5

45
25

strength

ASPECTS OF ENVIRONMENT, HEALTH AND SAFETY

The structural adhesives for use in hybrid bonding
(spotwelding plus bonding) shall be applied with automatic
dispensers. The motivation for this is quality assurance and
reducing workers risk. The adhesives stick to oily steel.
The question is for air-pollution by volatile pyrolysis products
released during the high temperature spotweld bonding
process. Investigations under plant conditions have shown
that at spotweld bonding about 75% of volatile pyrolysis
products are coming from the corrosion/lubricating oils. The
adhesive itself causes about 25%. The emitted products from
oil and adhesive do have the same chemical nature (6). By
analytical measurements using thermal analysis, mass spectrometry and GC-MS it has been found that the pyrolysis products
of all tested adhesive types (epoxy, polyurethane, elastomers)
did show similar patterns which are known for formation of
aromatics and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (7).
Already a conservative reduction of applied spotwelds
justified by the adhesive performance for crash and stiffness
will improve the environment and health situation.
A more general environmental impact is the weight reduction
potential of structural bonding. It is an additional contributor
to meet the fuel reduction requirements (3).

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SUMMARY

The reported experience and progress with crash

durable adhesives in Europe show that with this high
performance structural bonding a multifunctional
tool is available that can make cars better, lighter
and safer.

The weight reduction potential helps to reduce the

environmental impact of the car.

This new generation of crash durable adhesives

according to the proposed definition for a structural
bond can be used in conjunction with most of the
other new or classical joining techniques.

It is extremely important to consider the crash

durability at normal and low ambient temperatures.

The
ongoing
development
work
for
calculation/simulation of those types of joints also in
a crash scenario will enable maximum output from
structural bonding in performance and cost
reduction.

The quality assurance by fully automated

application, metering control and visional systems
assures the offered high performance of the body.

Positive practical experiences and literature studies

are available also for occupational hygiene aspects
and have been briefly discussed.

Crash durable structural adhesive bonding for use in

the car body should strongly be considered in the
future design.

REFERENCES
(1) Moody,I.N.,Fay,P.A.,Suthurst,G.D.: Can adhesives meet
the challenge of vehicle bodyshell construction?, in
Adhesion 11 edited by Allen,K.W., Elsevier Applied
Science Publishers, 1986

(2) Flegel,H.: The future of adhesive bonding as a joining

technique, AutoTechnology, 5/2002, 64-67
(3) Mark,F.,Symietz,D.: Fuel saving with bonding materials
and the European ELV legislation compliance, SAE 2004
World Congress, Detroit, March 8-11, 2004,paper no. 200401-1296
(4) BMW Magazin 2/2003, 62-63
(5) Wocke,C.:Modeling failure in a modern, toughened
epoxy adhesive using ABAQUS/Explicit, Abaqus User`s
Conference, Boston, May 2004
(6) Burchard,B. et al.: Technik und Arbeitshygiene des
Punktschweissklebens, Automobil-Industrie 5/92, 391-398
(7) Lrinci,G.Matuschek,G.,Fekete,J.,Gebefgi,I.,
Kettrupp,A.: Investigation of thermal degradation of some
adhesives used in the automobile industry by thermal/mass
spectrometry
and
GC-MS,
Thermochimica
Acta
263,1995,73-86