An investigation into the performance of solar cured adhesive bonded joints

In this research work attempts were made to study the bonding of thermoplastics with adhesives using solar radiation. In order to study the curing behaviour, experiments were conducted under varying conditions of temperature, exposure time and power. The cured samples were then studied under the optical microscope before subjecting them to tensile testing in order to study their mechanical properties. The fracture surfaces were further studied under the scanning electron microscopy in order to study the microstructural changes that are taking place during curing. In order to measure the performance of the solar radiation cured joints, features such as bond strength, surface morphology, microstructural changes, variation in properties of adhesives bonded joints are compared to those of specimens cured at ambient conditions and specimen cured using microwave techniques. From the present study, it is evident that curing under higher solar radiation temperature generally improves the bond strength and quality of the adhesive joints when compared to other modes of the curing process expect for the microwave curing process.