ADHESIVES are materials capable of fastening twoother materials together by means of surfaceattachment. The words glue, mucilage, mastic,and cement are synonymous with adhesive. Ina generic sense, the word adhesive implies anymaterial capable of fastening by surface attachment,and thus will include inorganic materialssuch as portland cement and solders such asWood’s metal. In a practical sense, however,adhesive implies the broad set of materialscomposed of organic compounds, mainly polymeric,that can be used to fasten two materialstogether. The materials being fastened togetherby the adhesive are the adherends, and an adhesivejoint or adhesive bond is the resultingassembly. Adhesion is the physical attractionof the surface of one material for the surfaceof another.
