Bond Durability of Grit-blast and Silane treated Metallic Adherends Bonded with Room Temperature Curing Adhesives

The "Australian Silane Treatment " has been successfully used for bonded repairs carried out at RAAF Airbases for a number of years. This surface treatment has provided a reliable and non-toxic alternative to surface pre-treatments recommended in Structural Repair Manuals (SRM) for metallic adhesive bonded repairs. Generally, however, the silane treatment has only been applied in bonded repairs involving the use of high temperature curing structural adhesives. The purpose of the study detailed in this report was to examine the feasibility of extending the application of the silane pre-treatment to metallic repairs involving the use of room temperature or paste adhesive systems employed in a range of airbase repairs. Wedge style durability tests were conducted for a range of metallic adherends and room temperature curing adhesives. The durability performance of the grit-blast and epoxy silane metallic adherend pre-treatment was compared with standard pre-treatments recommended in a range of SRMs. Generally, the data indicated that the grit-blast and silane pre-treatment offered either improved or similar performance to the SRM alternative pre