First bus built using adhesives as primary fastening method

New design and technology advances have resulted in the world’s first school bus using structural adhesives as a primary fastening method. Thomas Built Buses constructed the new bus, the Saf-T-Liner C2, by replacing the majority of screws and rivets with Henkel’s Loctite H9000 adhesive. The newly developed adhesive provides increased cure speed and improved body corrosion performance, and exceeds standardized federal joint strength requirements.<br>
In addition to lower costs, other advantages to structurally bonding includes improved corrosion performance, impact resistance and reduced noise and vibration. Bonded components include roof to side sheet subassembly, interior headers to roof sheets and interior side sheets to roof caps. <br>