Available Technologies

Technology

Ionic liquid epoxy (ILE) has shown to have great strength and toughness, while also having exceptional corrosion resistance and adhesion to a variety of substances. Ionic liquids are known to have a strong coupling to microwaves.

Researchers at UAH have developed a Microwave Curable Epoxy Adhesive using ILE and other epoxy resins. In addition to only requiring microwaves to cure, this new epoxy adhesive has many advantages, such as zero volatile organic compounds (VOC), toughness at cryogenic temperatures, low permeability for moisture and oxygen, and an extremely low thermal expansion coefficient. These advantages, as well as many others, make this epoxy highly suitable for many industries.

This UAH developed technology would be highly beneficial to the process of assembling parts with multiple components. Because ILE does not cure until microwaves are applied, components can be adjusted and moved until the final position is selected and the part is sent through a microwave oven. This is more effective than current methods of curing which require putting the entire structure into an oven and waiting for it to heat up. This new method only heats the epoxy adhesive, since microwaves do not affect most materials. Microwave curable epoxy reaches its green strength very quickly, allowing manufacturing throughput to be increased because there is no need to wait long periods for the epoxy to strengthen before the next phase.