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Assembly in Action: Adhesive Bonds Key Components of Roadster

The Panoz AIV Roadster is 70 percent aluminum and has a curb weight of 2,600 pounds. It is hand-built by the Panoz Auto Development Co. (Hoschton, GA) and is the first aluminum-intensive vehicle manu-factured in the United States. Only 200 are built each year.

Ford Motor Co. (Dearborn, MI) produces the vehicle's engine and drivetrain. The 4.6-liter, 32-valve, V8 powerplant rockets the car from 0 to 60 mph in 4.5 seconds.

ITW Plexus' (Danvers, MA) methacrylate adhesives are used in key structural bonding applications throughout the car. Joel Grewett, general manager of Panoz, says that aluminum body panels are bonded to the aluminum chassis using A0420 adhesive. Hood, deck and door liners are also bonded using adhesives.

A0420 is an all-purpose adhesive with high toughness. Its working time is 4 to 6 minutes, and fixture time is 15 to 18 minutes. Its tensile strength is 2,700 to 3,000 psi, while its shear strength is 1,750 to 2,250 psi.

Panoz's decision to use this adhesive was influenced by the product's combination of tensile strength and modulus of elasticity needed to produce tough, permanent bonds on a wide range of dissimilar materials.

For more information on adhesives, call ITW Plexus at 800-851-6692, visit www.itwplexus.com or Reply 7

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Austin has been senior editor for ASSEMBLY Magazine since September 1999. He has more than 21 years of b-to-b publishing experience and has written about a wide variety of manufacturing and engineering topics. Austin is a graduate of the University of Michigan.

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