Everyone likes the idea of better gas mileage. We typically focus on fuel type and engine design to maximize fuel usage in our vehicles, but the basic math is this – lighter weight vehicles use less gas. Vehicle manufacturers have been using glue (not glue like we use – this is super advanced epoxy space age stuff) to hold the body of the car together. But usually not on the really important parts, maybe just to keep the windshield in or the mirrors on the car. Over the past few years, auto makers have moved from steel bodied vehicles to aluminum bodies. Aluminum doesn’t like to be welded, but it responds well to glue. So it’s not like they just switched to it overnight. But now Ford, BMW and several other manufacturers are trying new adhesives in places traditionally off limits to glue – like the engine. Engines get hot and that tends to melt or make brittle adhesives. But the chemical companies have been pioneering new glues that are supposed to be able to withstand high heat and punishing cold and still provide seals and stability in the heart of the vehicle – the motor. Scientists are optimistic about their new epoxies and automakers love the idea of saving a couple hundred pounds of weight, but industry safety experts warn the jury is still out on how these brand spanking new glues will hold up over the test of time. Will being near salt water affect them? Will they hold up under a high speed collision? Will just time itself wear them down?
We won’t know for about 10 years, when these vehicles have been on the road for about 200,000 miles in extreme conditions, driven by regular people like you and me and not crash test dummies. Hopefully, we won’t have traded off safety for fuel economy. Time will tell.
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