Quality assurance of adhesive processes in the body shop

The need for a suitable joining technology for multi-material combinations in car bodies of the future has been constantly growing. Here, adhesive technologies offer a number of advantages as well as a great development potential. In order to ensure the performance of the entire vehicle, especially in relation to crash safety, rigidity and corrosion, quality assurance methods are required that ensure the efficiency of adhesive bonds, both in applicability and costs. Present-day conventional destructive test methods must be supplemented by non-destructive methods. A preventive quality management which is already used in the early stages of development by means of simulation methods can help reduce inspection costs and expensive reworking in the prototype phase. For this purpose it is necessary to analyse the processes employed in the manufacturing process of the car body in order to improve simulation with the aid of appropriate laboratory experiments. Initially, basic reaction kinetics tests are presented to demonstrate the heating rate dependency of glass transition temperature and the reaction process of a 1K epoxy adhesive. Finally, the requirements for an advanced testing methodology are defined in order to ensure and improve the quality of adhesive bonding in vehicles.