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The development of a durable adhesive bonding technology for joining of aluminium automotive structures requires a full understanding of the importance of the environment on the chemistry of the adhesively bonded system. This paper describes the accelerated testing procedures used by Alcan to provide information on the significance of environmental factors on adherend surface, the bonding interface and adhesive and so establish the best combination of adhesive and surface pretreatment for good long term durability. The stress/humidity test provides information on adhesive and interface performance, while the neutral salt spray test illustrates durability and corrosion resistance of the pretreatment. Outdoor exposure testing provides the means of comparing the accelerated tests with real life durability.

Experiments have been carried out on the collapse behavior, the energy absorption and the flexural stiffness of adhesively bonded, spot-welded and weld-bonded aluminum box structural assemblies and the results compared with those for equivalent spot-welded mild steel structures. It has been found that weld-bonded aluminum box beams can exhibit specific energy absorptions that are three times greater than those for the mild steel beams and, hence, show that aluminum vehicle structures which typically can be built at about half the weight of steel structures, should nevertheless have more than adequate impact resistance. In flexural testing, the results suggest that the overall stiffness improvements of bonded structures may be a combination of improved beam stiffness, and superior connections between structural elements.

In order to prove that the aluminum structured vehicle technology (ASVT), that was jointly developed by Alcan International and Gaydon Technology, could be used to produce satisfactory automobiles, a fleet of replica vehicles was built using the technology and was subjected to a comprehensive series of test track and road evaluation programs. This paper describes the novel way in which six Austin Rover Metro replicas were built using the ASV technology. It then goes on to describe the tests that were performed on the vehicles and the results obtained. The tests included static torsion, 1000 mile pave (Belgian block), pothole braking, accelerated corrosion and 30 mph barrier impact.