Rapid adhesive bonding concepts for specimen and panel fabrication and field repair

The NASA Langley Research Center has developed bonding concepts for aerospace composite materials which employ induction heating to directly apply heat to the bond line and/or adherends without simultaneously heating the entire structure, supports, and fixtures of a bonding assembly. These methods have demonstrated bonding process time reductions of two to three orders of magnitude, by comparison with conventional press molding. Attention is presently given to rapid adhesive bonding for lap shear specimens for aerospace panel bonding or field repair, as well as for the field repair requirements of metallic and advanced polymeric matrix composite structures.