I am working on an epoxy-bonded assembly of two 17-4 PH stainless steel surfaces. The bond line is controlled using glass beads, and the part dimensions before and after bonding cannot change, which means my bond line thickness cannot change.
I am looking to change epoxy formulations and need to be able to predict whether the bond line will be acceptable with the new epoxy formulation.
My suggestion is to take MIL-HDBK-17-3F. In chapter 6 is everything about bonded joints. Specialy interesting for you could be 6.2.3.2.
Anyway, Do you thought about any method for surface preparation?
We're working surface preparation in parallel. Right now we're using an electrocleaning process, but we're also considering etching the surface to promote adhesion. Unfortunately, the dimensional tolerances are fairly tight, or we would grit blast the adherends.