Tue, 14 April, 2020
The 1st International Conference on Industrial Applications of Adhesives was held on the island of Madeira on 5-6 March and was attended by TWI’s adhesives technology consultant, Dr Ewen Kellar.
Ewen sits on the conference scientific committee and spent his time chairing sessions, assisting judgment of the oral and poster sessions and delivering a talk entitled, ‘Indirect Determination of Adhesive Bond Properties – An Industrial Review.’
Over the two days, a wide range of applications and industrial sectors were covered, including automotive, aerospace and marine, with many interesting presentations and discussions on areas as diverse as novel NDT methods, repair systems and nano-additives.
Ewen’s talk distilled some of the key challenges around adhesive bonding that still remain to be addressed, in particular the answers to the questions of how strong and how long will an adhesive bond last. He also took the time to introduce the audience to a new collaborative project TWI is actively involved in, called SealedwithoUTaKiss, which is focussed on the NDT of bonded CFRP assemblies, in particular the kissing bond. The collaboration includes TWI, GMI Aero, Brunel University and Dassault Aviation.
Ewen Kellar