| With the commercialization of a new polymer blend, such as nylon 66 and syndiotactic polystyrene (>PA66+sPS<), it is necessary to develop application specific data. This thesis documents three studies that examined the adhesive lap-shear strength of syndiotactic polystyrene (sPS) and >PA66+sPS< with silicone and epoxy based adhesives. Specifically, this work compared the adhesion performance of PA66 compounds, sPS compounds and >PA66+sPS< compounds with four silicone adhesive systems. Additionally, this work investigated the effect of individual components that comprise a typical >PA66+sPS< formulation on the adhesive performance of a silicone adhesive, in conjunction with an evaluation of the effect of pre-conditioning of specimens. Finally, the adhesion strength of two >PA66+sPS< blend formulations were investigated with two epoxy adhesives after environmental conditioning with and without mold release. Discussions are centered on the effects of adhesive type, compound formulation, sample pre-conditioning and environmental aging on the adhesion strength, as measured by lap-shear strength. |
