Isabel Van de Weyenberg
Project Manager, Flanders Make
Isabel is active at Flanders Make since 2012. After achieving her PhD on Natural Fibre Reinforced Composites at KULeuven, she gained industrial experience in various roles at Philips. The combination of both academic and industrial expertise is usefully being applied in her current job as project manager.
Breaking the Bond+C55: Towards Industrial Implementation of Debonding-on-Demand
Adhesive bonding is widely employed in the automotive industry, but it poses a challenge by hindering the easy separation of bonded substrates, hence obstructing recycling and product repair. Recent research has explored various strategies for enabling controlled debonding, with the incorporation of thermally expandable particles (TEPs) being a prominent technique. However, most of this research remains confined to laboratory-scale experiments.
This study investigates controlled debonding on a larger, pilot scale within an industrial automotive context. The process involves bonding a composite panel to a steel frame and activating TEPs, incorporated within the adhesive, through heat to achieve debonding. The research starts with laboratory-scale optimization, determining parameters like TEP concentration, debonding temperature, and time. The strength of adhesive joints is assessed through standard DIN EN 1465 lap shear tests before and after TEP activation. Subsequently, the optimization efforts extended to the pilot scale.
The results demonstrate that controlled debonding can be effectively achieved on a pilot scale, requiring a 15-minute process by introducing 5 wt% TEPs into the adhesive and triggering them through induction heating. The conference presentation will also include findings from the economic and LCA assessments, collectively indicating the feasibility of force-free debonding on command at an industrial scale.
Co-authors: Jeroen Jordens, Elena Gambera
BO XIII – Debondable Adhesives for Circular Automotive Designs – 12 September 2025 – 12:00 – 12:30 – Chamber Hall