Shear Strength of Adhesive Bonding of Plastics Intended for High Temperature Plastic Radiators

The use of adhesive joints has increased in recent decades due to their competitive features in comparison with other joining methods. They can be used in specific applications where there is no possibility to use alternative connection techniques. Adhesive bonding was used to assemble the prototype of a high-temperature car radiator (operated up to 125 °C) with a total of 12,240 plastic tubes. This work aims to estimate the shear strength of different adhesives intended for bonding the plastics used to assemble the above-mentioned high-temperature radiator. Fourteen commercial adhesives were tested with one thermoset plastic (G11 glass fabric epoxy sheets) and two glass-reinforced thermoplastics (polyamide PA66-GF30 and polyphenylene sulfide PPS-GF40). Tests were conducted according EN 1465 to determine tensile lap-shear strength of bonding. Testing showed that only 4 of the 14 adhesives tested exhibit substantial bonding strength at temperatures above 120 °C and only one is resistant at 180 °C. The AS60/AW60 adhesive showed the best results for all three substrates: 1.6 MPa for epoxy sheets and PA66-GF, and 1.4 MPa for PPS-GF40. Additionally, the influence of the surface treatment with cold plasma was evaluated on a clean and activated bonding surface, causing a 30% increase in the shear strength.