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What Adhesives Are Used For - The Industrial Applications
It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world. And bonding adhesives are no different. Yes, let me tell you right now that the world of bonding adhesives is completely mad. Well, not that mad. But it's pretty interesting really. There's so much going on, just so many different sorts of things happening everywhere. And all the time, let's explore them shall we. Pardon my enthusiasm, but it's really interesting once you scratch beneath the surface.
Perhaps the most interesting thing is the amount of industries that use such adhesives. I always thought it was pretty much all just gluing together a broken plate, or making nice looking displays for a school assembly. But I was wrong, so I read up on the facts and it's pretty much everywhere.
The automotive industry uses adhesives for a number of reasons, none of which I thought of before doing my homework. I presumed the making of cars was all nuts and bolts, but in modern automotives adhesives are used in a wide range of applications. The electronics of modern cars require adhesives to build. The satellite navigation systems, cellular telephone docks and maybe even head rest televisions need to be assembled and fixed into position in a car. Interestingly these sorts of products require a special glue to instantly fix all the components together with a very strong bond, without the need for drying time and resulting in speedy assembly. All the various seals and gaskets on a car have to be placed into position too, these are particularly important as an untrustworthy bond may cause slippage in a component that is not only convenient but critical to road safety, such as headlights or brake lights.
I touched on it in the previous section when talking about car electronics. But the electronics industry as a whole uses adhesives. This might be very high bond, VHB, adhesives to ensure that electrical components can be manufactured to a high standard and not come loose in the device in which they are placed. There are some electrical devices, such as phones, that require acoustically transparent meshes for audio transfer. These are affixed to the device with adhesives. Some products may generate an unwanted level of heat, such as in laptop computers - so specially designed adhesives are used that are thermally conductive and transfer heat from a particular component into a heat sink or air vent, without melting and coming unstuck.
Some of the applications in the military and defence industry are quite interesting. Adhesion is required all over this sector. There is a vibration and sound dampening in much powerful military equipment and vehicles. This may be achieved by fixing cushioning material to a vehicle, and thus dampening sound. These adhesives are designed to function even in extreme temperatures, so that military vehicles can operate in a variety of environments. Window bonding is another important area where adhesives are used. This is critical in the manufacture of airplanes and road vehicles, where the need for sealed windows is necessary for ensuring a pressurised cabin or preventing air leaks into the road vehicle - which may be toxic in hostile environments.
So it's totally bonkers what we use bonding adhesives for, it's pretty much everything. I haven't even mentioned the healthcare industry, aerospace or signage either. It's crazy, but hopefully the mad world of bonding adhesives seems a little saner to you now.
Jeffrey Nevil writes on a number of subjects including bonding adhesives.
Article submitted Wednesday, January 18, 2012 & read 3 times.
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