New vehicle construction driving use of adhesive in structural repairs

April 26, 2015
As vehicle body construction becomes more advanced and inclusive of materials like aluminum and carbon fiber, repairers must know how to correctly address damage to these different substrates for the most effective, safe and quality repair.

CHICAGO — As vehicle body construction becomes more advanced and inclusive of materials like aluminum and carbon fiber, repairers must know how to correctly address damage to these different substrates for the most effective, safe and quality repair.

New construction methods are leading to new developments and repair techniques for rivet bonding, hybrid substrates and when attaching dis-similar substrates like carbon fiber to aluminum or aluminum to steel.

Shawn Collins and Jason Scharton with 3M focused on the process for using adhesives in partnership with mechanical fasteners and why vehicle makers have chosen this route in their presentation, “How the Automotive Industry is Changing Structural Repair,” on April 25 at Automechanika Chicago.

The use of adhesive during structural repairs “makes the vehicle more rigid so it increases torsional rigidity, which basically means it stiffens the structure so it is more responsive to handling on the road, helps prevent corrosion and it makes the vehicle much quieter,” Collins said.

“Now with the new types of adhesives coming to market, impact resistance structural adhesives also absorb energy during a collision event. This makes the vehicle safer all around.”

Collins and Scharton presented attendees with examples of rivet-bonded joints, weld-sealed joints, weld-bonded joints and other construction methods. A Cadillac ATS frame rail was also on display during the presentation. “This is a good example of one of these newer technologies where they attach a cast aluminum strut tower and rivet bond that to a high-strength steel frame rail,” Collins said.

“This information is great for you technicians, but shop owners, you need to know what is coming as well. You need to upgrade training and upgrade the ability to source the repair information,” he said.

“Traditionally, we repaired the car the way it came into the shop. If a panel was spot welded on, we would plug weld that panel back on. But it is becoming more and more common that the repair method is different than the original build method. There are a lot of cases now where a panel may have been welded on at the factory, but the repair procedure calls for adhesive because they don’t want to overheat the joint during the welding process,” Collins said.

Collins and Scharton brought attention to some of the different bonding methods and the different application methods. They highlighted examples of what may currently be considered unusual repair and attachment methods, but ones that will most likely become more common in the future.

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“Don’t assume that the way a car was built is the way it will be repaired. And unless you have the training or the ability to source the repair manuals or material, you are not going to know that,” Collins said.

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