calcbond – Success­fully Design & Calcu­late Adhe­sive Joints

Dear reader,

as an expe­ri­enced engi­neering company for inno­v­a­tive light­weight solu­tions, we not only offer devel­op­ment services, but also run www.calcbond.com - the world’s unique, inno­v­a­tive online plat­form for the design and calcu­la­tion of bonded joints!

In this blog article, we intro­duce you to the browser-based tool calcbond and give you an inter­esting insight into the features and possi­bil­i­ties that this soft­ware offers its user.

Have fun reading!

Why calcbond? – Advan­tages of the inno­v­a­tive online plat­form for adhesiv joint design

Why did we decide to develop calcbond? This ques­tion can be answered in two parts.

Firstly, for us as an inno­va­tion-driven engi­neering company, digital tools in engi­neering have been a funda­mental part of our daily work for years. We under­stand that the need for powerful yet easy-to-use soft­ware tools for engi­neers is rapidly growing.

Secondly, adhe­sive bonding tech­nology has a special signif­i­cance in light­weight engi­neering. More and more compa­nies are using bonded joints in the manu­fac­ture of their prod­ucts or want to do so. However, the profes­sional design of a secure bonded joint is not trivial and requires a lot of expe­ri­ence, specific exper­tise and usually expen­sive, complex soft­ware tools. In other words, designing bonded joints your­self usually costs a lot of time and money. We wanted to change that.

That’s how the idea for calcbond came about. Based on our many years of expe­ri­ence in the design of struc­tural bonded joints from our project busi­ness combined with our under­standing of the devel­op­ment and adap­ta­tion of soft­ware, we came up with the idea of devel­oping an online plat­form. It allows users without exten­sive know-how in the field of adhe­sive bonding tech­nology to design and calcu­late bonded joints quickly and safely. Easy to use and with cost and time savings of up to 80%, compared to conven­tional methods!

Tool Overview – The powerful features of calcbond

The calcbond plat­form is a holistic ecosystem and offers a compre­hen­sive wiki, a mate­rial data­base as well as powerful calcu­la­tion tools and auto­mated reporting. Here is an overview of the most impor­tant features:

Analyt­ical Toolbox & Design Explorer

The analyt­ical toolbox of calcbond offers its users a quick and easy way to calcu­late stresses in the adhe­sive layer of a mechan­i­cally stressed overlap bond. Depending on design para­me­ters such as the adhe­sive layer thick­ness or the overlap length, highly inho­mo­ge­neous shear and peel stress curves occur in the adhe­sive layer, depending on the type of load. These can be calcu­lated and eval­u­ated using the analyt­ical toolbox. The calcu­la­tion methods imple­mented in the tool deliver results in seconds. Prede­fined vari­ants of simple overlap bonding facil­i­tate para­meter input.

The analyt­ical toolbox also offers the ​“Explore design space” area, which enables quick design studies based on the analyt­ical calcu­la­tion methods. Here, the influ­ences of the design vari­ables can be directly calcu­lated and inter­ac­tively eval­u­ated for selected para­meter spaces of the bond.

Mate­rial Cards

In the ​“Mate­rial Cards” section, users can view and compare tech­nical data on a range of adhe­sives from well-known manu­fac­turers such as Sika, Huntsman (Araldite) and Kisling in well-struc­tured mate­rial cards. The mate­rial cards are divided into basic infor­ma­tion as well as more detailed engi­neering para­me­ters that can be used for calcu­la­tions in calcbond.

In the future, users will also be able to create their own mate­rial cards in calcbond and use them for calcu­la­tions in the app. In this way, users can also calcu­late with adhe­sives that are not yet avail­able in calcbond per default and for which no engi­neering data is gener­ally avail­able from the manu­fac­turers.

The expan­sion of the ​“Mate­rial Cards” feature to include user-specific mate­rial cards can be expected in Q3 2023.

AutoFEA Module

The AutoFEA module offers the power of numer­ical simu­la­tion pack­aged in a clear and easy-to-use user inter­face. Users can build their own para­metric 3D calcu­la­tion model of the bonded joint from a selec­tion of stan­dard­ised, typical bonding appli­ca­tions - such as bonded fastener or a window pane bonding - and run simu­la­tions. Complex mechan­ical load combi­na­tions as well as an addi­tional temper­a­ture load are possible. Within a few minutes, complex bonded joints can be modelled, calcu­lated and eval­u­ated without having to be a calcu­la­tion expert your­self.

The results are made avail­able to the user both in the user inter­face and in the auto­mat­i­cally gener­ated PDF report.

Wiki

The calcbond Wiki offers users a compre­hen­sive knowl­edge­base on all impor­tant topics of adhe­sive bonding tech­nology: from adhe­sive selec­tion, design and calcu­la­tion to appli­ca­tion on the compo­nent. In addi­tion to rele­vant exper­tise, the wiki also offers helpful tips for the profes­sional plan­ning and imple­men­ta­tion of bonded joints as well as prac­tical appli­ca­tion exam­ples. An overview and expla­na­tion of the most impor­tant adhe­sive tech­nology stan­dards and guide­lines is also provided here.

Your Advan­tages – How calcbond saves you time and money in product devel­op­ment

The use of calcbond offers users a whole range of advan­tages that give them a deci­sive edge in product devel­op­ment with bonded compo­nents:

• Less trial & error, less costs - analyse design vari­ants faster through auto­mated calcu­la­tion
• Enabler for non-experts - calcbond helps to solve complex adhe­sive bonding prob­lems without the need for specific exper­tise
• Exten­sive knowl­edge data­base - all infor­ma­tion in one place: no lengthy research required
• Web-based plat­form - easy online access, no instal­la­tion required
• Flex­ible booking model - monthly cancellable subscrip­tion
• All-in-one solu­tion - knowl­edge, mate­rial data, calcu­la­tion tools in one place

YouTube Video – Webinar for Begin­ners: Learn how to get the most out of calcbond

To get to know calcbond in the best possible way, we have created a compact webinar that guides you through the plat­form in under 15 minutes and shows you how to use the indi­vidual features:

Do you want to stay up to date on calcbond news? Then subscribe to our free monthly calcbond newsletter!

You will also find regular arti­cles on topics related to adhe­sive bonding tech­nology and calcbond in the blog. Stay curious!