Surface engineering of aerospace aluminium alloys: Understanding alloying effects on chemical pre-treatment and sol-gel coating adhesion

The sol–gel process is a chemical surface preparation method based on hydrolysis and polycondensation reactions for enhanced adhesion for metallic substrates in adhesive bonding and coating applications. This paper describes an investigation into the effect of the microstructural complexity of two commonly used aerospace aluminium alloys (AAs...

Scrutinizing the importance of surface chemistry versus surface roughness for aluminium / sol-gel film adhesion

The sol-gel synthesis process is a versatile method used to produce a wide diversity of materials and is being increasingly used as a surface modification method to alter porosity, wettability, catalytic activity, biocompatibility and corrosion performance of underlying substrates. Silane sol–gel films deposited on aluminium and aluminium...

Effect of surface roughness and chemistry on the adhesion and durability of a steel-epoxy adhesive interface

This work focuses on the effect of surface roughness and surface chemistry on the initial adhesion strength and corrosive de-adhesion properties of adhesive bonds. The adherend used in this study is a S690 low-alloy steel whereas the adhesive is a 2-component epoxy-amine adhesive (Araldite 2015). The steel surface is subjected to different...