Cast Systems » Adhesives

Polymer materials, to include non-cellular, cellular, rigid, and non-rigid, have excellent adhesive properties when formulated to produce the desired adhesive quality. UET has developed several polymer adhesives in both transparent and non-transparent systems for military and civilian applications.

One such system was used as an applied adhesive layer (0.040 inches) to bond acrylic outer ply to polycarbonate inner ply for the F-15 and F-16 fighter aircraft canopies. Utilizing our polymer adhesive, the system exhibited no delamination between substrates on either aircraft over extended periods of time. During the development of this system, the company encountered no complications with the forming process of either canopy. Both canopies formed to the required shape with no loss in optical quality during processing.

Adhesives were also developed in the bonding of similar layers for the spall shield material used in the F4 Phantom aircraft. The spall shield was placed between the outer skin and fuel cell of the aircraft. Once impacted by a projectile, the material prevented the aluminum particles from holding open the fuel cell, resulting in minimal fuel loss.

Adhesives were also developed to produce UH-1D fuel cells. These cells were developed to be highly resistant to rupture on impact. Prior to the development of this system, there was a 98% fatality rate as a direct result of fires from ruptured cells. Post development of this system accredited no recorded fatalities from UH-1D crashes of similar types.