As the drive for light weighting increases the range of materials used in automobiles, the requirement for reliable ways of joining these materials grows in importance. Adhesive joining technology is capable of joining dissimilar materials and can offer improved performance over traditional methods in many situations, however, careful qualification and quality controls are needed to ensure reliable results.
The constant demand for new materials that are lighter or stronger necessitates advancements in joining techniques, which facilitate the joining of new combinations of materials and have potential contributions to the overall lightweighting of a vehicle. Materials exhibit different behavior under high strain rate conditions.
In the manufacture of automobiles, metallic bolts are used in large volumes ranging in application from high strength required for structural assembly to securing lightweight parts to the vehicle. Whatever the application they are used for, testing is critical to determine if they will be suitable for the application and/or to ensure they are meeting the quality standard.
As more and more components of cars are made using plastic, testing must be done to ensure that different plastic components will stay bonded together. Plastic welding techniques such as vibration and laser welding are used to join different plastic components in addition to traditional adhesive methods. To ensure that the bonds are sufficiently strong, tensile testing is vital.
