Lessons learnt from designing and producing adhesively bonded prototyping structures in a shipyard

Abstract

As part of a joint European research programme, VT Shipbuilding carried out extensive structural adhesive bonding of a prototype aluminium ship superstructure. The work was part of the Bondship project, entitled, ‘Bonding of lightweight materials for cost-effective production of high-speed craft and passenger ships’. The project involved developing optimized production procedures by assembling adhesive joints in a realistic shipbuilding environment. Optimized procedures were developed for adhesive application and assembly techniques. It was found that the greatest difficulty in the build process was accounting for joint misalignments caused by poor dimensional control of modular units. Techniques including the insertion of aluminium flat bar into the joint and adhesive injection were used to overcome this. Valuable lessons were learnt regarding surface preparation, adhesive dispensing and the optimum operating temperature.