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ARALDITE BONDS CRITICAL ELECTRONICS HOUSING ON S-BAHN TRAINS
30 March 2003 - Huntsman Araldite
| Vantico’s two component epoxy adhesive Araldite® AW2101/HW2951 is being used
to bond critical SMC components housing vital electronics systems, on urban train
carriages used by Germany’s S-Bahn railway system in Berlin. |
Araldite was chosen for this application primarily because of its superior adhesion
and gap filling capacity over a long bondline. Peguform GmbH & Co KG, one of Germany’s leading SMC components
manufacturers to the automotive and transport industries, was commissioned by
Bombardier Transportation to produce the SMC door cladding and haunches for the
S-Bahn carriages which house the train’s electronic systems. Each train contains around 200 of these SMC components and the majority are
bonded using Araldite AW2101/HW2951, to metal rails up to 2m long. This two component epoxy adhesive has proven superior adhesion to SMC surfaces and the ability to fill gaps up to 5mm wide – not an unusual discrepancy over a bondline up to 2m long. Peguform has also used Araldite AW2101/HW2951 successfully before on a previous application for the production of 500 regional trains. With the S-Bahn carriages, the SMC components, aluminium rails and chromated
steel hinges are all roughly ground and then degreased with Isopropanol. An easy-to-use dual barrel cartridge with a static mixer, which ensures highly
accurate application, is used to apply Araldite AW2101/HW2951 to the SMC
component. This is immediately joined to the metal rail or hinges and held together
in a clamp for 90 minutes, at room temperature, until handling strength is reached.
After another 24 hours, the strength of the bonded joint is tested with a 30kg load.
After a short time, the integrity of the bondline is checked again. To date, Peguform has used AW2101/HW2951 in the manufacture of 330 S-Bahn trains. A further 170 trains are scheduled for production. “The Araldite SMC bonding range is based on the latest polyurethane, epoxy and
methacrylate adhesives technologies, some requiring only room temperature curing for primerless SMC bonding,” said John McHugh, UK Sales Manager, Vantico. “It is especially effective for applications, such as this particular project with Peguform, where the integrity of the bonding is so critical to the safe operation of the train.”
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