Cryogenic Adhesives
Low temperature bonding
Our application on MIDAS was bonding a very low CTE material (ceramic) to metals.
We had the best luck with Hysol EA 9309, and we also used Stycast 2850FT.
If outgassing is not a problem, you may also want to check into Hysol EA 9361,
which was a new adhesive several years ago, specially designed for cryo use,
but had fairly high outgassing (or call Hysol for a new recommendation).
Stycast 2850FT is made by Emerson & Cuming (now a division of Grace & Co.) --
(617) 729-9520.
Hysol EA 9309 is made by Dexter Corporation -- (925) 458-8000, FAX (925)
458-8030.
References
Both of these adhesives were used on the MIDAS
project, which unfortunately no longer has an active Web site, for low temperature work at 75K.
The original test report was in 1993 Research and Technology Highlights, which
are currently only available in hard copy. The actual test procedure and report can be
found in the
MIDAS documents (MIDAS-001 for test assembly, MIDAS-004 for test procedure and report, MIDAS-033a for flight
hardware assembly procedure) -- contact author listed at the bottom of this page to get these. Basic test
process was to treat the metal for the best adhesion, bond the ceramics with
different adhesives, then
cool the part down to 77K and see which ceramics cracked off. The only
thing not included in the electronic test report is photos of the test parts.
Results and process are also discussed in two publications:
- Ruth McElroy Amundsen, Thermal
Design and Analysis for the Cryogenic MIDAS Experiment
, paper 97ES-29,
27th International Conference on Environmental Systems (SAE), July 14-17, 1997,
Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
- R. M. Amundsen, J. C. Hickman, P. Hopson, Jr., E. H. Kist, J. M. Marlowe, E.
Siman-Tov, C. P. Turner, C. J. Tyler, J. E. Wells, S. A. Wise, R.
Dickson and M. W. Hooker,
Development of the Materials in Devices as Superconductors (MIDAS)
Experiment,
NASA/TM-1998-208440, May 1998, pp. 60.
You may also want to look at our lessons learned on the NASA LLIS
(search for cryogenic and bonded).
Some cryogenic property references
- Handbook on Materials for Superconducting Machinery, 1974.
- Air Force Materials Laboratory. Cryogenic Materials Data Handbook AFML-TDR-64-280
(Revised 1970). Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio: July 1970.
- A Compendium of Properties of Materials at Low Temperatures, Part I, Properties of Solids. Victor Johnson, NBS, Cryogenic Engineering Laboratory, WADD Technical Report 60-56, Part II, October 1960.
- Development of Adhesives for Very Low Temperature Application (May 1963) N64-11326
- Cryogenic Adhesives and Sealants -- Abstracted Publications, Williamson And Olien, NASA SP-3101.
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