Epoxy is a really good way to hold your car together - if you are Lotus. The
Lotus Elise (which, not being sold in the States, many of you may not be aware
of) is a superb, lightweight, mid-engined, two-seater sports car introduced by
Lotus about 4 years ago (when I still worked for them, so I might be biased -
but all the magazines seem to agree with me). The chassis is manufactured
from extruded aluminium sections (warm your Al and squeeze it out of a
toothpaste tube, essentially), which are then bonded (sounds better than
'glued'!) by an epoxy specially developed between Lotus and the adhesive
manufacture. A few rivets are then added, purely to improve crash-worthiness
- major sudden shock can fracture the bond, although normal use never will.
So, epoxy is superb, in a clean manufacturing environment, using brand new
metal (probably surface treated somehow), using a glue specially designed for
that car. No erosion, no warping, no damaging the material properties with
heat, just as strong, and easier - we all know aluminium is a bugger to weld.
Needless to say, I will not be rushing out with my tubes of Araldite next time
Daffy need some new sills...
Sorry if all this Lotus talk is slightly off-topic, but I thought some of you
might be interested...
Richard and Daffy
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