Details of Grant

EPSRC Reference:

GR/M13428/01

Title:

NOVEL INSTRUMENTATION FOR ADHESIVE CURE MONITORING IN MANUFACTURING PROCESSES

Principal Investigator:

Lowe, Professor M

Other Investigators:

Cawley, Professor P

Researcher Co-Investigators:

Project Partners:

Alcan	Ford Motor Co	Jaguar Land Rover
N D T Solutions Ltd	Pre Nexus Migration	Ricardo Group

Department:

Mechanical Engineering

Organisation:

Imperial College London

Scheme:

Standard Research (Pre-FEC)

Starts:

01 January 1999

Ends:

31 December 2001

Value (£):

139,348

EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:

Materials Processing

EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:

Manufacturing

Related Grants:

Panel History:

Summary on Grant Application Form

Adhesive joining of sheet metal structures brings many advantages, but its adoption in safety critical structures has been slow due to uncertainty of cure state that results from measurement difficulties which this programme aims to solve. For hot cure monitoring we will research the use of low diameter wires inserted into a bond line to guide Lamb-like ultrasonic waves between a distant transducer and a hot joint. Recently established relationships between the elastic moduli of this curing adhesive and its evolving molecular structure will enable the interactions between the guided wave and the curing adhesive to be modelled to yield optimum wire types, wave modes, signal excitation schemes and processing of received signals in order to track cure. Post hot-cure assessment of the cure (and chemical) state of the adhesive is possible in the laboratory using compression wave ultrasound but implementation in a process environment requires the considerable development of transducer and signal processing technology which will form part of this programme. The two techniques will be incorporated in an advanced generic electronic instrument designed for process applications, and then evaluated in an automotive plant.

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Project URL:

Further Information:

Organisation Website:

http://www.imperial.ac.uk