Two-component curable hot melt compositions

A two-component curable hot-melt composition comprising:

• (1) a thermoplastic polyamide resin that is substantially free of piperazine-containing polyamines, said polyamide resin having a softening point above about 40.degree. C. and an amine plus acid number less than about 75;
• wherein said polyamide resin comprises the reaction product of (a) an acid component comprising one or more polymeric fatty acids and optionally at least one acid selected from the group consisting of linear dicarboxylic and monocarboxylic acids, and (b) an amine component consisting essentially of (i) about 45 to 100 equivalent percent of one or more acyclic diamines comprising at least one branched diamine provided that said branched diamine is other than 3-(N-isopropylamino)propylamine, or at least one unbranched diamine selected from the group consisting of 1,3-pentanediamine, 1,3-propanediamine, 1,5-pentanediamine, 1,7-heptanediamine, 1,9-nonanediamine and 1,2-propanediamine, and (ii) about 0 to 55 equivalent percent of one or more polyamines selected from the group consisting of acyclic polyamines other than those amines of (b)(i), based on total equivalents of the amine component (b);
• and
• (2) an epoxy resin, said epoxy resin having at least two epoxy groups per molecule of epoxy resin;
• wherein the initial ratio of free amine and acid groups of the polyamide resin to epoxy groups of the epoxy resin is between about 1:1 and 1:10;
• and
• wherein the cured composition possesses a tensile modulus of less than about 20,000 psi, using ASTM standard test method D 1708-84 and the secant modulus measurement technique defined in ASTM standard method D 638-89.