Abstract
Adhesively bonded structures are widely used in the aerospace industry. Unfortunately, adhesion is a macroscopic property depending specifically upon numerous sub-microoscopic parameters so that producing a strong and durable bond is a difficult task which needs many fundamental and applied research investigations. In this context, the surface composition of adherends plays an extremely important role in the overall performance of a bonded structure: it is well known that surfaces of ‘as-received’ materials are chemically very different from the bulk composition and are usually unsuitable for adhesive bonding. Consequently, surfaces of such materials hav to be submitted to appropriate chemical or electrochemical prebonding treatments in order to modify both their morphology and chemistry. This paper discusses the surface characterization of aluminium, titanium and their alloys at various prebonding stages. Practical applications of X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, low-energy electron-induced X-ray spectroscopy and glow discharge optical spectroscopy are described.
Published Version
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