GENERAL MOTORS ENGINEERING STANDARDS
ADHESION COMPATIBILITY OF FERROUS SUBSTRATES
GM3624M
1 SCOPE. This specification details the performance
requirements for the determination of adhesives compatibility
of ferrous substrates using standard lubricants. The testing
described herein shall be completed before new substrates are
submitted for tryout or production usage requiring systems
compatibility.
2 REFERENCED STANDARDS.
GM1000M GM9505P 9981989
GM6185M GM9901P SAE J1523
GM4466P 9985599
3 REQUIREMENTS.
3.1 RESTRICTED AND REPORTABLE CHEMICALS
(GM1000M). All materials supplied to this specification must
comply with the requirements listed in GM1000M, Restricted
and Reportable Chemicals.
3.2 MATERIALS.
3.2.1 Control Substrate. GM6185M (70G70GU, min.)
3.2.2 Control Adhesives. 9981989 or 9985599.
3.3 PROCEDURE.
3.3.1 Coupon Dimensions (SAE J1523). Lap shear speci-
mens must be made up of test coupons dimensioned per SAE
J1523.
3.3.2 Surface Preparation (GM9901P). The substrates must
be prepared per GM9901P prior to adhesive application.
3.3.3 Lap Shear Specimens (SAE J1523). A total of 30 lap
shear specimens for each substrate shall be assembled per SAE
J1523. The adhesive bondline thickness is 0.13 mm. The dwell
time after assembling these specimens is 2 h minimum and 16 h
maximum.
3.3.3.1 The adhesive shall be cured in an air circulating oven
for 20 minutes @ 177 ± 2˚C metal temperature.
3.3.3.2 In order to keep the specimens from severe corrosion
in environmental tests, the bonded lap shear assemblies may be
phosphated and E-coated prior to the above bake.
Alternatively, the raw assemblies (without coating) may be
coated with a corrosion preventive (paraffin wax, etc.) after
being baked and prior to environmental testing.
3.3.4 Lap Shear Strength (SAE J1523). The lap shear
strength is determined in the initial condition and after each
environmental conditioning as outlined below.
3.3.4.1 Ten (10) lap shear specimens shall be tested for each
environment.
3.4 ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONING.
3.4.1 Initial conditioning environment is 24 h @ 25˚C and
50% RH.
3.4.2 Water Immersion (GM4466P). Adhesive test speci-
mens shall be immersed in water maintained @ 55˚C for 7
days. The lap shear strength tests should be completed imme-
diately after soak.
 Copyright DECEMBER 1998 General Motors Corporation All Rights Reserved
DECEMBER 1998
Materials and Processes – Adhesives
3.4.3 Environmental Corrosion Cycle (GM9505P, Cycle G).
Test specimens shall be subjected to 30 cycles of GM9505P,
Cycle G. The lap shear strength tests shall be completed after
24 h @ 25˚C and 50% RH.
3.5 PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS.
3.5.1 All adhesive bonds shall be examined for failure mode.
Cohesive failure is required for each sample; 100% adhesive
failure for any individual sample constitutes incompatibility
and results in a rejection of the materials being tested. However,
a cohesive failure of up to 50% in any metallic coating (galva-
nized, galvanneal, etc.) is permissible.
3.5.2 The candidate material must be statistically indistin-
guishable from the control substrate at a confidence level of
95% as determined by the Students t-test.
3.5.2.1 For each set of 10 samples, calculate the average (Xi)
and the standard deviation (si).
3.5.2.2 For each of the 3 test conditions (initial, water immer-
sion and corrosion cycle) calculate the t statistic from the
following equation:
t = (Xi − Xc)/(sc2/nc + s i2/ni)1/2
where Xc is the average of the control substrate, Xi is the aver-
age of the values for the candidate substrate, sc is the standard
deviation of the values for the control substrate, si is the stan-
dard deviation of the values for the candidate material, and nc
and ni are the number of samples in the calculation, which in
this case should be 10.
3.5.2.3 Compare the calculated t value with the appropriate
critical t value in a t table (In this case, look up t(.95, 10)
which is 1.812).
3.5.3 The calculated t value must be less than the critical t
value for each of the 3 conditions and the average strength for
the candidate material, Xc must be ≥ 9N/mm2 initially in order
for the candidate material to be judged as having passed this
requirement.
4 INITIAL SOURCE APPROVAL.
4.1 No shipment shall be made by any supplier until repre-
sentative initial production samples have been approved by
engineering as meeting the requirements of this specification.
4.2 Completed copies of the Material Safety Data Sheet
meeting GM information requirements must be submitted with
any new submissions or whenever a composition change has
occurred.
5 INSPECTION AND REJECTION. All shipments of
material or parts under contract or purchase order manufac-
tured to this specification shall be equivalent in every respect
to the initial samples approved by engineering. There shall be
PAGE 1 3624M
 GENERAL MOTORS ENGINEERING STANDARDS Materials and Processes – Adhesives

ADHESION COMPATIBILITY OF FERROUS SUBSTRATES

GM3624M

no changes in either formulation or manufacturing processes specification number have been qualified by engineering as
permitted without prior notification and approval by engineer- meeting the requirements of this specification. Sources are
ing. Lack of notification by the supplier constitutes grounds available through the on-line MATSPC System.
for rejection of any shipment. While samples may be taken
from incoming shipments and checked for conformance to this 7 GENERAL INFORMATION. This standard was origi-
specification, the supplier shall accept the responsibility for nated by the Adhesive Committee in 1988. The latest revision
incoming shipments meeting this specification without depen- includes:
dence upon purchaser’s inspection.
Rev Date Description
6 APPROVED SOURCES. Engineering qualification A 6/98 Complete Revision
of an approved source is required for this specification. Only B 12/98 Editorial correction to General
sources listed in the GM Corporate Materials File under this Information

 Copyright DECEMBER 1998 General Motors Corporation All Rights Reserved

3624M PAGE 2 DECEMBER 1998