Case Study: Yellow School Bus
The yellow school bus is one of the oldest and most recognizable forms of transportation in North America. In the U.S. alone, over 440,000 public school buses travel over 4 billion miles annually transporting over 25 million children on a daily basis. As the safety standards have evolved, so has innovation.
Years of research and design has resulted in buses that have revolutionized transportation of our most precious commodity… our children. Virtually every element of the conventional bus has been redesigned to improve the safety, reliability and durability in the modern school bus.
One of the new technologies incorporated in the manufacture of the latest buses is the use of specially designed Plexus adhesives on body joints to increase the overall strength and durability of the bus. The adhesive drastically reduces the number of fasteners required, creating a sleeker look and a lower potential for leaks.
Traditional assembly methods such as welding, riveting and bolting are quickly being replaced by Plexus “metal bonders”. Plexus metal bonders are formulated so that little or no surface preparation is required when bonding “like” or “dissimilar metals” and still resulting in joints with exceptional strength and excellent durability. Unlike mechanical fasteners, adhesive bonds distribute the stress across the entire joint while absorbing shock and vibration.
Due to these factors, several of the manufacturers have redesigned their traditional offerings to incorporate the use of Plexus structural adhesives for not only the safety advantages, but also the efficiency improvements in the manufacturing process.
