Collection: Adhesives

Dagobert Industrie stocks the industrial adhesives used in manufacturing, assembly and maintenance: structural adhesives, instant adhesives, anaerobic adhesives, hot melts, adhesive sealants and surface preparation products.

By technology

• Two-part epoxy adhesives, for structural bonding of metal and composite.
• Cyanoacrylate adhesives, for instant bonding of small parts.
• Anaerobic adhesives, for threadlocking and retaining cylindrical assemblies.
• Hot melt adhesives, for production throughput.
• Contact adhesives and spray adhesives, for large areas.
• UV adhesives, for visible joints and glass.
• Adhesive sealants, when the joint must also seal and stay flexible.

Which adhesive for which assembly

Three questions settle it, in this order.

1. Does the joint have to carry a load?

If it does, you need a structural adhesive: epoxy, two-part acrylic or two-part polyurethane. The other technologies hold a part in place, they do not make it work.

2. Do the two materials move in the same way?

Bonding aluminium to steel, or plastic to metal, raises a problem that adhesive strength does not solve: the two materials expand at different rates, and the joint absorbs the difference at every temperature change. You then need a flexible adhesive, hybrid or polyurethane sealant, and a bond line thick enough to deform.

3. How long do you need to position the parts?

An instant adhesive sets in seconds and allows no correction. A slow-cure epoxy leaves half an hour to adjust. Choosing an adhesive faster than necessary is the most common cause of a failed assembly.

The point everyone overlooks

When a bonded joint fails, the break almost always occurs at the interface between adhesive and substrate, not within the adhesive itself. The product is therefore almost never at fault: the surface preparation failed.

Degrease, abrade, degrease again. Three steps, in that order, with a clean single-use wipe. On difficult substrates, glass, baked paint, polypropylene, an adhesion primer is often the difference between a joint that holds and a joint that lets go in the first cold spell.