When the glass has become the sought-after material in constructing buildings, it inspired the use of transparent and clean looking building envelopes. As a result, it calls for glass structures in which adhesively bonded parts allow a homogenous distribution of forces. This then reduces local stress peaks in the glass. This is why apart from the typical mechanical connections; structural bonds have now become very important for glass as a building material. All these can be greatly attributed to the invention of structural epoxy and epoxy resin adhesives that make structural bonding for point fixings become possible.
Fortunately, there are various epoxy resin adhesives that are available commercially. They are utilized in various areas of applications, specifically in the field of the automotive industry, construction engineering, and mechanical engineering. Though structural epoxy offers amazing adhesive properties, still there is no optimally appropriate adhesive that can be identified so far for a single application. This is particularly true when it comes to thermal resistance and stability properties, which are not fully adequate for very harsh outdoor applications. This is where fillers and additives have been used to modify the basic formulations of structural adhesives, especially the structural epoxy.
Using fillers and additives on basic formulations of adhesive, the mechanical strength and thermal stability of the products have been altered positively. They were able to perform various tasks within the structural epoxy system, which commonly include alumina, lime, carbon black, and talc. With their addition in adhesive formulation, the expensive cost of raw materials can be decreased, without negatively impacting the inherent chemical and mechanical properties of the epoxy. They help minimize the shrinkage during the curing process while increasing the rigidity of the adhesive.
Specific for structural epoxy adhesives, the widely used additives are light or UV stabilizers, and rheological plasticizers. Their primary role is to alter and influence the mechanical and thermal qualities of the adhesive and improve its performance and durability to cope with external impact and ageing behavior. This creates a modified structural epoxy adhesive that handles the major concern of using glass as a building material.
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