No, it's not for looks, it's very much for function.

I was tasked with this after an armature in the lab spontaneously ripped itself loose from the bracket onto which it was mounted, destroying about $300 of equipment, as well as trashing the armature. The steel screws tore the threads right out of the aluminum bracket when the failure occurred. No, we hadn't exceeded the weight limit for the armature nor the bracket, it was well within tolerances. I spoke to some engineers at the company that makes the bracket as well as the armature and they couldn't explain why it happened. Their best suggestion was to augment the screws with a solid epoxy at the point where the steel attachment plate for the armature meets the aluminum mounting bracket.

I'm working on this at home since we really don't have any extra space to spare at the lab (as our budget shrinks so does our available square footage). As such, I want to use the strongest possible solid epoxy that won't produce fumes which will gas me or my animals. However, if overwhelming toxic fumes can't reasonably be avoided without significantly compromising the strength of the epoxy that can be used I am prepared to let the epoxy cure on my screened-in back porch and just not go out there for however long it takes for the fumes to dissipate.

I'm open to suggestions that don't involve solid epoxy, I'm been going with this as I haven't been able to come up with anything else. My only constraints are that it can't involve welding nor substitution of the bracket or the attachment plate.

Any useful insight is greatly appreciated.