Meeting the Challenges of Industries through Industrial Adhesive

The traditional mechanical methods of bonding critical parts together have become increasingly difficult to use and specialized methods like welding, brazing and soldering requires skilled labor. An option is industrial adhesive which has risen to the challenge of industries. With their ability to bond many substrates like plastics, metal, rubber and glass, industrial adhesives offer several major advantages over the traditional mechanical methods. Industrial adhesives can join irregularly shaped surfaces more easily without increasing the weight of the assembly and without creating any changes in part dimension and geometry.

The different types of industrial adhesive

Anaerobic adhesives

Available in a wide range of formulations, anaerobic adhesives are commonly used for locking and sealing threaded assemblies, for retaining bearings and bushings on shafts or in housings and for sealing metal flanges in place of cut gaskets. The main characteristic of this industrial adhesive is it remains liquid even when exposed to air but once it is confined between metal substrates, in can cure or harden into a tough thermoset plastic that can provide excellent environmental and temperature resistance.

Cyanoacrylates

This type of industrial adhesive can achieve fixture strength in seconds at room temperature making it ideal for high volume, automated production environments. Cyanoacrylates are frequently used to bond plastics, metals and rubbers. This adhesive is available in different formulations with varying viscosities, cure times, strength properties and temperature resistance.

Light cure acrylics

Light curing acrylic adhesives provide superior gap filling properties and clear bond lines for improved aesthetics. Its formulations are widely available with secondary cure mechanism that allows adhesion even in shadowed areas so as to cure completely. Light cure acrylics offer extended open times for the positioning and repositioning of parts and high bond strength to a wide variety of substrates. This type of industrial adhesive is available in ranging degrees of flexibility from soft elastomers to glassy plastics with superior thermal, chemical and environmental resistance.

Light cure cyanoacrylates

One of the advantages of this hybrid technology is the combination of the benefits of cyanoacrylates and light curing acrylics. Any visible adhesive fixture will cure within seconds when exposed to proper light while adhesives in shadowed areas will cure due to the secondary curing mechanism which is a characteristic of cyanoacrylates. This type of industrial adhesive is now widely used for assembling medical devices, cosmetic packaging, speakers, electronic assemblies and small plastic parts since they can be processed in seconds instead of minutes.

Epoxies

The most widely used epoxy adhesives are one and two component liquid and plastic since they can be cured at ambient temperature and more quickly at higher temperatures. The one component formulation would require elevated temperature cures but if it has to be cured in seconds; exposure to UV light is possible. Epoxies are excellent for gap-filling applications making them highly advantageous in structural designs. Structural epoxy adhesives feature the highest tensile strength among commercially available bonding adhesives.

Polyurethanes

These are tough polymers that offer greater flexibility, better peel strength and lower modulus than epoxies. Similar to other industrial adhesives, polyurethanes bond well to a wide range of substrates due to its high chemical and temperature resistance however, long term exposure to high temperature can degrade them more rapidly than epoxies.