So you wanna stick two things together really well. What’s the most powerful sticky stuff you could get? (And should it be “Strongest adhesive known” or “strongest known adhesive”?)
This goes into the strengths and weaknesses of various classes of adhesives. Looks like there’s no one strongest.
Just for the hell of it.
The answer 100% depends on what you are sticking together.
White glue will glue two pieces of wood together with a bond that is stronger than the wood, but won’t glue metal worth a damn. Silicone will glue glass to glass with a strong bond, but is useless for wood. Epoxy is strong on metal, but bad for many plastics.
And, nothing glues Nylon to LDPE.
How would you measure “strongest”? The conditions are important. Are you testing at 20C? 150C? Are you testing in a peel mode? Shear mode? And what about peel rate and shear rate? An adhesive that supports a 17 ton truck might fail with a slight tap of a hammer.
The joint failure could be from adhesive failure to the substrate, cohesive failure of the adhesive, or substrate failure. Measuring adhesive failure would be meaningful in the case of pressure sensitive adhesives like a tape. In the case of cohesive failure of the adhesive or substrate failure I’d think the strongest joint would be a metal weld.
You could qualify the question to “What is the strongest adhesive when used to bond its intended surfaces?” Industrial and Aerospace structural adhesives are probably the contenders. Structural adhesives must withstand a lap shear force of at least 6.9 MPa (1,000 psi). I know of aerospace grade adhesives with a lap shear strength of up to 21MPa when applied properly to bond aluminum, titanium, or composite surfaces.
Wheat paste will stick a poster to a wall with what appears to be an unbreakable bond but it won’t stick your broken glasses frame back together. It’s all about the surface and materials you need to stick together that determines the strength of the adhesive. That being said, Gorilla glue holds shit pretty damned good.
Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind next time really need to hold my shit.
I’d be ready to wager that dog shit is the substance with the best adhesion to the human foot.
If my teenage son’s experiment in his bedroom is anything to go by, dried-on weetabix residue seems to impossible to shift from a porcelain surface. I think it could be used to protect spacecraft on re-entry.
If two people share a specific bias, that really sticks them together.
In many cases, the strength of the bond itself isn’t what makes a repair work, because the underlying materials that broke still faces the same stresses. And if you insert a strong bond that has different properties from the nearly material (for instance, a rigid glue holding together pieces of more flexible wood) you can create a focal point for stress, concentrating those stresses on the nearby material.
I’ve seen a lot of mended items break right next to the glue joint. The glue held, but the wood broke again a millimeter or two away from the repair.
Love.
Love will keep us together.
Up to certain values of torsion, shear and ductility.
newsflash …
your context information leads me to believe the substance you talk about might not be dried-on weetabix residue…
christ, well if not there is something seriously wrong with his plumbing, and his aim.
I remember a science program (NOVA? National Geographic special?) stating the adhesive exuded by barnacles is the strongest “glue” known to science.
For household stuff, JB Weld is the best adhesive I’ve found. Their two-part epoxy is extremely tough.
That’s been my experience, too. I like wood glue for wood, but for almost anything else i like JB weld.
Sure: Titebond III is the best all-around wood glue on the market, IMO.
JBWeld has different formulas for different purposes. The products are excellent when using the correct one for the circumstances. If you need a simple epoxy glue without fillers then odds are any brand you choose will work just as well.