LOW SURFACE ENERGY TREND, HOW ADHESIVES ARE ADAPTING

These materials offer manufacturers several benefits, including:

• Durability
• Flexibility
• Moisture and heat resistance
• Cost effectiveness

In particular, these materials include:

• Polypropylene
• Polyethylene
• Teflon
• Other thermoplastic polyolefins

However, these materials are hard to bond to with conventional adhesives. This is because adhesives need materials with higher surface energy in order to sufficiently “wet out” the surface. “Wetting out” is required to form a strong bond and refers to the adhesive seeping into the substrate.

When a material has low surface energy, the adhesive beads up rather than flows out. Unable to make intimate contact with the substrate, the adhesion level is reduced and bond failure is likely.

While surface preparation techniques help increase the level of surface energy, new adhesive formulation advancements enable adhesives to bond to these materials with or without surface preparation. This is due to their formulation’s ability to adjust to a lower surface energy.

In particular, using adhesive tape products help with bonding to these materials and offer lightweight, quick and clean adhesion. With the ability to tolerate vibration and movement, these products also eliminate weak points, spreading stress uniformly thoroughout the product.

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Bostik’s extensive industry knowledge and broad technology portfolio enable us to formulate adhesives that can accommodate these difficult-to-bond substrates and other evolving market trends. Meeting a range of applications, we can also custom formulate products for customers’ most stringent needs.

For information on how our products can help your company’s manufacturing processes, call 800-7-BOSTIK, or visit www.bostik.com/us.

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