Testing of Adhesives - Useful or Not

In industry and in research laboratories, there is a variety of test methods used to indicate the ‘strength’ of adhesively bonded joints. The questions to be answered are ‘why do we do these tests?’ and ‘what do the results mean?’ If there is a reasonable answer to the second question, then it is worth continuing with the test programme. But all too often, the test results are functions of the test rather than the object being tested.