OVERVIEW:
A manufacturer of automotive components manufactures a two-sided, heavy-gauge, control plate coil-coated with a B-stage adhesive that then needs a fiber gasket adhered via heat presses. Problems with cure response of the adhesive and inconsistent adhesion of the fiber gasket lead to high scrap rates as high as 20%. With only a handful of suppliers that had the know-how to make this type of adhesive and no solutions being identified, accepting such a high rate of scrap seemed inevitable.
CHALLENGE:
Laminating to metal with their in-house processes often comes with challenges of pressure uniformity and outgassing, in addition to a tight operating window for cure response which can lead to poor quality and significant scrap. Over-curing the adhesive means it won’t reactivate and adhere to the gasket. Under-curing could mean blocking of stacked plates or even in the coil stock. Even when outsourcing to a coil coater, this manufacturer was experiencing a challenge with the adhesive being supplied and could not find an adhesive supplier to customize the product to suit their needs.
SOLUTION:
This manufacturer turned to UNICHEM to help them find a solution that could meet their needs, including the desired reduction of their scrap rates. UNICHEM provided a solution by a custom-formulated industrial adhesive, uniBOND®, that would account for the capabilities and shortcomings at the coil coater and in their own operations. This manufacturer has been a very satisfied customer ever since and couldn’t be happier with the solution they were provided with, another one of UNICHEM’s uniBOND® adhesive formulations.
RESULTS and BENEFITS:
This Tier One Automotive supplier was able to reduce costs, and increase productivity and capacity simply by finding a better adhesive solution. With this one change, they were able to achieve the following benefits:
- Reduced cost of in-house material handling labor
- Drastically cut scrap costs down below 3%
- Improved on-time delivery
- Improved product quality
Download: UNICHEM Case Study – How One Automotive Tier One Supplier Reduced Costs and Improved Production Efficiency (PDF)
UNICHEM offers unique solutions by formulating our uniBOND® industrial adhesive to meet custom requirements. Contact us with your adhesion problems for a solution tailored to meet your needs.