Where in a spacecraft are adhesives most commonly or routinely used?
Are there specific spacecraft components or assemblies that are regularly built by using adhesives rather than other methods of attaching one component to the other?
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Sign up to join this communityWhere in a spacecraft are adhesives most commonly or routinely used?
Are there specific spacecraft components or assemblies that are regularly built by using adhesives rather than other methods of attaching one component to the other?
Ceramic tiles for heat shields.
Because you cannot really weld ceramics to metal, and nuts and bolts are too heavy and vulnerable, the ships heat shield is usually bonded to the hull. The Space Shuttle used a menagerie of thousands of glued-on tiles to protect it during reentry. The Shuttle’s tiles were made of bonded silica fibers. Robust against heat, but not particularly durable against impact.
There can be a fuzzy differentiation between adhesives and resins used in composite structures such as Urethanes and Epoxies. These resins may be found in the internal composite structures.