SURFACE TREATMENT FOR STRUCTURAL BONDING TO ALUMINUM

摘要

Provided are methods for structurally bonding adhesives to aluminum components without using adhesive bond primers. Also provided are apparatuses that include these structural bonds. An aluminum component may be treated with a conversion coating creating a conversion layer on the surface of the aluminum component and then treated with a sol-gel material creating a sol-gel layer on the conversion layer. An adhesive layer is applied directly onto the sol-gel layer without any adhesive bond primers. After curing the adhesive layer, a structural bond is formed between the aluminum component and the adhesive layer. The sol-gel material may be specifically formulated for a specific adhesive type and may include functional groups providing covalent bonds to the adhesive layer. The sol-gel material may be cured within about 30 minutes at a room temperature in comparison to 90 minutes at 250F needed to cure a typical adhesive bond primer.