UV adhesives

[Lyle Spiegel]

Has anyone looked at using UV adhesives for our models? Probably a bit heavy, but might be useful where we are using epoxy?  Field repairs when quick cure is needed.

[Lauri Malila]

Yes, they can be good if your model is made from transparent materials that do not block UV-light. 🙄L

[Dave Hull]

I didn't have good luck with it on a previous aerospace product. I don't recall the manufacturer or the part number, sorry. Even after doing a number of test coupons we didn't figure out the issue. So we went back to a filled epoxy and suffered the wait time. But none of those joints ever failed....

Getting sufficient light intensity to the majority of the joint seemed to be one key. The stuff sure works for dental applications, right?

If you can get support from the company to discuss your application, you might decide to try it. But if you are talking about doing repairs in the field--hopefully a rare occurrence--you would need to lug around the light source and have power available. And, leaving the adhesive in your vehicle indefinitely and going thru heat cycles might not be a good thing. It might "kick" without that being intended?

I have wondered what the chicken-gummy stuff on some the ARFs was, and maybe some of it was UV curing material?

Dave

[Curare]

I didn't have good luck with it on a previous aerospace product. I don't recall the manufacturer or the part number, sorry. Even after doing a number of test coupons we didn't figure out the issue. So we went back to a filled epoxy and suffered the wait time. But none of those joints ever failed....

Getting sufficient light intensity to the majority of the joint seemed to be one key. The stuff sure works for dental applications, right?

If you can get support from the company to discuss your application, you might decide to try it. But if you are talking about doing repairs in the field--hopefully a rare occurrence--you would need to lug around the light source and have power available. And, leaving the adhesive in your vehicle indefinitely and going thru heat cycles might not be a good thing. It might "kick" without that being intended?

I have wondered what the chicken-gummy stuff on some the ARFs was, and maybe some of it was UV curing material?

Dave

Dave I suspect the chicken gummy stuff you're talking about is a hot glue or some sort, although I've not tested that theory. 

I have use the UV goo and light pens to cover over wrapped line terminations. I'm not entirely convinced that it's the right choice but it does give a nice smooth finish. I don't think i'd trust it to glue anything together on an airframe though.

[Ara Dedekian]

       Hi Lyle

           I tried making some repairs with the unit shown below (purchased on the web) and found the resin didn't have the strength for our applications. The resin cures as a clear plastic that can easily be cracked with pliers. It held for awhile on a broken eyeglass frame but eventually let go. The dental version is likely a composite strengthened with fillers that will hold up in the oral environment. But what I discovered is that it's not an adhesive, it's a matrix. It comes with a coarse emory board with instructions to thoroughly roughen the surfaces to be bonded. I believe that tooth surfaces have to be etched prior to the dental procedure. The resin doesn't 'glue' the parts together, it attaches them together.

          The Bondic unit below holds the resin in the black applicator handle and the UV light source is activated by a watch battery in the round end.

      Ara

[Dave Hull]

interesting info, guys.

The stuff we used was opaque, and a cream color. We had a much more substantial light source, looking more like a MonoKote heat gun. It eventually cured, but wasn't near as fast as claimed, and therefore it did not work for our application. Since we were bonding two rigid metal parts together, the flexibility of the adhesive was not as import to us.

Dave