Reliability studies on the bonding materials for ceramic-metal composite actuators

Recently there is a tremendous effort to make composite sensors and actuators for smarts systems and structures. In the smart structure systems, piezoelectric ceramics (as a driving element) often need to be attached to the vibration elements with bonding agents. In this study the adhesive properties of various epoxy agents, both two phase mixing type and thin film type were investigated. Mechanical and chemical surface treatment methods were applied to increase the bonding strength. Among the tested samples epoxy films exhibited the highest strength.