Automotive manufacturers face a continually changing landscape with technologies evolving as fast as cars are being manufactured.
New Vehicle Production Requirements Cannot Compromise Safety
The reality of today’s automotive production involves meeting many requirements with competing characteristics such as lighter weight vehicles that still meet safety requirements. In the drive to meet less CO2 emissions with lighter weight vehicles, we cannot compromise safety. Structural adhesives play an important role in producing lighter weight vehicles that still meet safety requirements.
The structure of automobile bodies is becoming lighter and continues to push the envelope with lighter weight requirements to further reduce CO2 emissions. Two approaches are standard when aiming to reduce vehicle weight; downgauging the thickness of assembled parts and reducing the number of assembled parts are both processes that auto OEMs are pursuing. Selecting high strength steels or low-density metals like aluminum in conjunction with using superior industrial adhesives is key to meeting both requirements.
Structural Adhesives with Improved Stress Durability
Structural adhesives play a role in light-weighting vehicles and can provide crash resistance features with stress durability. Stress durability is the ability of the adhesive to maintain adhesion and structural mechanical properties following environmental aging cycles under specific static load. Crash resistant structural adhesives are designed to provide superior adhesion on various types of substrates with improved stress durability.
Stress resistant structural adhesives are critical in meeting light-weighting requirements while also ensuring that vehicles pass crash safety testing. They must be designed to carry a greater load to diminish impact energy with a high fracture toughness that is resistant to cracks. Quality structural adhesives deliver many benefits when laminating to metal with reliable durability of bonded structures.
The areas where automobiles can experience the greatest benefit from light-weighting to reduce overall weight are in the body and in closures. Opportunities for light-weighting must be aligned with legal requirements for safety including crash performance and the need to limit vibration and noise.
Speed for Production Cannot Compromise Flexible Manufacturing
Automotive manufacturers live by just-in-time production, with products and assemblies arriving just in time for production to cut the costs of storing and managing inventory. Pushing for more efficient shipping and receiving along with quicker cycle times in the manufacturing of all components directly benefits the bottom line of OEMs. The need to speed new product development must not take away from the flexibility of manufacturing and processing time.
Industrial Adhesives Improve Vehicle Manufacturing
Universal Chemicals & Coatings, Inc., UNICHEM, offers industrial adhesives that improve lamination bonding applications for a variety of applications, including automotive. We have been providing high-quality adhesives that improve laminating to metal for more than 50 years. uniBOND industrial adhesives are formulated for regulatory compliance with ultra-low volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as well as ultra-low hazardous air pollutants (HAPs). uniBOND adhesives are formulated to meet stringent regulations by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
You can find uniBOND in many industrial lamination bonding applications including:
- Recreational vehicles
- Commercial vehicles
- Passenger vehicles
uniBOND Fiber Composite Adhesives outperforms other adhesives when bonding clutch pads, transmission plates, brake shoes, and high heat and high friction gasket materials. uniBOND is available as a single stage or B-stage adhesive, is applied with a coil coating process and can either be finalized on-line or reheated for downstream bonding in subsequent processes.
uniBOND enhances performance with these automotive applications as well as many other industries such as construction, appliances, and roofing.
UNICHEM is a leader among custom chemical manufacturers offering high-quality industrial adhesives that improve lamination bonding applications. uniBOND is set apart from other industrial adhesives with the experienced team behind the technology offering customized solutions to meet your exact specifications. Learn the benefit of having an adhesive specialist on your team and contact UNICHEM today to improve your laminating to metal processes.