《Glue makers fasten on to drive for lighter cars and planes》：
ALTHOUGH few drivers suspect it, cars are increasingly held together by glue — as are aircraft, phones and myriad other items.
The process of substituting adhesives for welds, rivets, screws and bolts has been so gradual over recent decades that few people have noticed. Now it is speeding up in the car world as manufacturers struggle to make vehicles lighter to meet tougher fuel economy requirements.
That’s good news for such adhesive makers as Henkel, HB Fuller, Dow Chemical and 3M, although they still face technical hurdles, such as finding ways for adhesives to withstand higher temperatures, and need to overcome the preference of some design engineers for more tried-and-tested metal fasteners.
The global market for structural adhesives used in cars, aircraft and other vehicles should hit $US2 billion ($2.2bn) this year, up from $US1.5bn a decade ago, said IHS senior consultant Eric Linak.
He said the market is growing at between 4 per cent and 5 per cent a year, up from between 2 per cent and 3 per cent a few years ago.
“Bonding [with adhesives] is the new welding,” said Steve Henderson, president of Dow’s automotive unit.
Basic metallurgy is on their side: aluminium doesn’t readily weld to steel but can be glued.
So is chemistry: carbon fibre and other composite materials lend themselves more to glues than screws. Ford’s coming 2015 F-150 pick-up has an aluminium body and more than three times as much adhesives as previous models of the top-selling US vehicle. BMW’s new Project i electric and electric-hybrid cars have passenger compartments made of carbon fibre joined with adhesives, eliminating metal fasteners.
About 12 kilograms of adhesives now go into the typical car, up from 8kg a decade ago, said Daniel Murad, chief executive of ChemQuest, a Cincinnati consulting firm.
“It’s not as if we’re trying to glue an entire vehicle together,” said John Hill, a Ford researcher responsible for adhesives. But he expects the adhesive content of vehicles to rise.
In aerospace, the Boeing 787 illustrates adhesives’ growing importance. About half of the airframe is made of carbon fibre. Each of the airframe’s five sections uses between 40,000 and 50,000 fewer metal fasteners than conventional airliners, Boeing said.
《Glue makers fasten on to drive for lighter cars and planes》：
ALTHOUGH few drivers suspect it, cars are increasingly held together by glue — as are aircraft, phones and myriad other items.
The process of substituting adhesives for welds, rivets, screws and bolts has been so gradual over recent decades that few people have noticed. Now it is speeding up in the car world as manufacturers struggle to make vehicles lighter to meet tougher fuel economy requirements.
That’s good news for such adhesive makers as Henkel, HB Fuller, Dow Chemical and 3M, although they still face technical hurdles, such as finding ways for adhesives to withstand higher temperatures, and need to overcome the preference of some design engineers for more tried-and-tested metal fasteners.
The global market for structural adhesives used in cars, aircraft and other vehicles should hit $US2 billion ($2.2bn) this year, up from $US1.5bn a decade ago, said IHS senior consultant Eric Linak.
He said the market is growing at between 4 per cent and 5 per cent a year, up from between 2 per cent and 3 per cent a few years ago.
“Bonding [with adhesives] is the new welding,” said Steve Henderson, president of Dow’s automotive unit.
Basic metallurgy is on their side: aluminium doesn’t readily weld to steel but can be glued.
So is chemistry: carbon fibre and other composite materials lend themselves more to glues than screws. Ford’s coming 2015 F-150 pick-up has an aluminium body and more than three times as much adhesives as previous models of the top-selling US vehicle. BMW’s new Project i electric and electric-hybrid cars have passenger compartments made of carbon fibre joined with adhesives, eliminating metal fasteners.
About 12 kilograms of adhesives now go into the typical car, up from 8kg a decade ago, said Daniel Murad, chief executive of ChemQuest, a Cincinnati consulting firm.
“It’s not as if we’re trying to glue an entire vehicle together,” said John Hill, a Ford researcher responsible for adhesives. But he expects the adhesive content of vehicles to rise.
In aerospace, the Boeing 787 illustrates adhesives’ growing importance. About half of the airframe is made of carbon fibre. Each of the airframe’s five sections uses between 40,000 and 50,000 fewer metal fasteners than conventional airliners, Boeing said.