14. Adhesive Families

Adhesive bonding, which addresses applications in an ever-growing number of industrial, handicraft and service sectors, does not exist as a specific research activity in its own right. Every user of bonding technology – from surgeon and handyman to car manufacturer and aeronautical launch vehicle designer – has specific needs, especially in the area of adhesives. In order to answer to these needs, suppliers are diversifying and extending their product ranges in terms of conditioning and bonding processes. This results in some very difficult choices, making it necessary to have at one’s disposal “navigational tools” in an extremely complex network (Fabris and Knauss 1990; Pocius 2002). Because the basis of adhesive formulation is inevitably macromolecular in nature, polymer science is likely to shed valuable light in this area. By using our knowledge of the principles underlying these formulations, and also the basic physical chemistry rules that apply, we can establish a general classification system, allowing us to direct our decision-making processes toward those product “classes” best suited to each specific application. On this basis, adhesives can be presented according to the following main discussion: