Liquid adhesive

The selection of the method of application depends on the adhesive form, whether liquid, paste, powder, film, or hot melt. Other factors influencing the choice of application method are the size and shape of parts to be bonded, the areas where the adhesive is to be applied, and production volume and rate.  

Adhesives in liquid form may be applied by the methods described below. 

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Regardless of which, or which combination, of the above mechanisms is responsible for adhesion in a given case, intimate molecular contact between the adhesive and adherend is required. This means that the contact angle of the liquid adhesive against the adherend surface should be as low as possible, and preferably 0°. For the case of contact adhesion, this is immediately evident, but in cases where mechanical interlocking is the primary mechanism for adhesion it is also the case because the adhesive must first be able to flow or wick into the pores of the... 

Surface energies are assoeiated with formation of the adhesive bond beeause they determine the extent to whieh, at equilibrium, a liquid adhesive will eome into eontaet with a solid surfaee. This is refleeted in the value of the eontaet angle, 6, whieh is related to the surfaee energies (written, following common usage, as y) by Young s equation [9]... 

Eqs. 4 and 6 enable the extent of contact between a liquid adhesive and a solid substrate to be gauged. Some consequences are shown in Table 1 where the concept of the reduced spreading coefficient S/yw, employed by Padday [10], was used to clarify the situation. As is readily seen, if S is positive, the liquid at equilibrium will be spread completely over the solid, but if S/yi is less than —2, spontaneous dewetting will occur. 

The discussion above assumes that equilibrium contact between liquid adhesive and rough substrate is achieved. However, adhesives set in what may be quite a short time, and so may never reach equilibrium contact. It is therefore relevant to consider the kinetics of penetration of the adhesive into a pore. 

One of the most common rubber adhesives are the contact adhesives. These adhesives are bonded by a diffusion process in which the adhesive is applied to both surfaces to be joined. To achieve optimum diffusion of polymer chains, two requirements are necessary (1) a high wettability of the adhesive by the smooth or rough substrate surfaces (2) adequate viscosity (in general rheological properties) of the adhesive to penetrate into the voids and roughness of the substrate surfaces. Both requirements can be easily achieved in liquid adhesives. Once the adhesive solution is applied on the surface of the substrate, spontaneous or forced evaporation of the solvent or water must be produced to obtain a dry adhesive film. In most cases, the dry-contact adhesive film contains residual solvent (about 5-10 wt%), which usually acts as a plasticizer. The time necessary... 

As mentioned at the outset, hot melt adhesive s primary advantage is process speed. Fleat resistance and substrate penetration are typically inferior to liquid adhesives (neat reactive systems, solvent, or water-based). Current research and development is therefore focused on maximizing the process advantages of hot melts and minimizing their performance deficiencies. Optimizing hot melt... 

Most moisture-curing liquid adhesives utilize poly(oxypropylene) (PPG) polyols, as shown above. These raw materials produce among the lowest-viscosity prepolymers but may not have sufficient modulus at higher temperatures for some applications. A certain percentage of polyester polyols may also be utilized to boost performance, but these may cause a large increase in viscosity, and so they are more often used in conjunction with polyether polyols to provide a high-performance adhesive with workable viscosities. Poly(butadiene) polyols may be utilized for specific adhesion characteristics. 

The addition of defoamers can restore some of this lost strength, but only to a certain point. The defoaming mechanism usually relies upon diffusion of gas bubbles together in the liquid adhesive to form larger bubbles, which, in turn, rise to the surface and break. Diffusion generally decreases with increasing viscosity and stops when the gel point is reached, i.e., when the viscosity approaches infinity, accordingly ... 

In the manufacture of pure resorcinol resins, the reaction can be violently exothermic unless controlled by the addition of alcohols. Because the alcohols perform other useful functions in the glue mix, they are left in the liquid adhesive. PRF adhesives are generally prepared firstly by reaction of phenol with formaldehyde to form a PF resol polymer, that has been proved to be in the greatest percentage, and often completely, linear [95], In the reaction step that follows the resorcinol chemical is added in excess to the PF-resol to react it with the PF-resin -CH2OH groups to form PRF polymers in which the resorcinol groups can be resorcinol chemical or any type of resorcinol-formaldehyde polymer. 

Gooch [4] has reported general deformulation schemes for solid paints and coatings, liquid paints, solid plastics, liquid plastic specimens, solid and liquid adhesives, in which preliminary examination (by OM, SEM, EDXRA) is followed by separation of the individual components and their subsequent identification (Scheme 2.9). Gooch employs different deformulation schemes for solid and liquid specimens, but essentially identical approaches for plastics, paints, adhesives and inks (Scheme 2.10). 

As we see in Chapter 6, surface tension and contact angle measurements provide information on liquid-liquid and solid-liquid adhesion energies (Fig. 1.26c). Contact angles measured under different atmospheric environments or as a function of time provide valuable insights into the states of surfaces and adsorbed films and of molecular reorientation times at interfaces. 

It is informative to apply Equation (60) to low-energy surfaces for two extreme values of 0, 0° and 180°, for which cos 0 is 1 and — 1, respectively. For 0 = 0°, WSL = 2yLV = WAA the work of solid-liquid adhesion is identical to the work of cohesion for the liquid. In this case interactions between solid and solid, liquid and liquid, and solid and liquid molecules are all equivalent. At the other extreme, with 0 = 180°, WSI = 0. In this case the liquid is tangent to the solid there is no interaction between the phases. 

After veneers have been unitized from small strips to full sheets of the desired width, usually 4 feet by 8 feet in softwood plywood and various widths and lengths for hardwood custom manufactured plywood, they are ready to be fed through a glue application which coats one or both sides of veneer sheets with liquid adhesive. These applicators control the amount of adhesive transferred to the veneer. The amount of glue mix applied per 100 square feet of surface area (single glue line basis) will approximate 4-5 pounds and the amount of resin solids 1-1.5 pounds. 

Table 40—Solid-Liquid Adhesion Tensions. (Bartell and Osterhof, 1927)...

As explained under the adsorption theory of adhesion,3 an adhesive must first wet the substrate and come into intimate contact with it. (A brief description of the adsorption theory of adhesion is presented in the section below.) The result of good wetting is simply that there is greater contact area between adherend and adhesive over which the forces of adhesion (e.g., van der Waals type of forces) may act. For good wetting, the surface free energy (surface tension yLV) of the liquid adhesive must be less than that (critical surface tension yc) of the solid adherend, or... 

Solid epoxy resins are usually formulated as solvent solutions and blends with lower-MW resins for the production of liquid adhesive systems. However, solid epoxy resins are also often employed in the manufacture of adhesive systems having solid form. There are several forms of solid epoxy adhesives that find application. The most common are supported or unsupported film, powder, and solder stick. Formulations for these adhesives are detailed in Chap. 13. 

The first three factors are generally controlled by the rheological properties of the liquid adhesive through the application of fillers in the formulation. The final factor can be controlled through the viscosity however, other methods are also possible to control the bond line thickness. 

When a liquid adhesive solidifies, the theoretical strength of the joint is reduced because of internal stresses and stress concentrations that usually develop. The most common cause... 

Three primary mechanisms have been suggested for enhanced adhesion via silane coupling agents.5 The classical explanation is that the functional group on the silane molecule reacts with the adhesive resin. Another possibility is that the polysiloxane surface layer has an open porous structure. The liquid adhesive penetrates the porosity and then hardens to form an interpenetrating interphase region. The third mechanism applies only to polymeric adherends. It is possible that the solvent used to dilute and apply the silane adhesion promoter opens the molecular structure on the substrate surface, allowing the silane to penetrate and diffuse into the adherend. 

Tape adhesive is prepared by impregnating the above liquid adhesive into a glass mat and procuring at 133°C for 35 min. The adhesive can withstand temperatures up to 287°C. 

FIGURE 14.1 UV processing of a 100 percent solids liquid adhesive. 

Radiation curing adhesives are generally applied as solvent-free liquids. High-solids EB and uv curing liquid adhesives have been formulated from a variety of resins and elastomers. They include epoxy acrylates, epoxies, other acrylates, polyesters, blends of acrylate monomers with elastomers, and other compositions. 

The applications and performance characteristics of waterborne epoxy adhesives can be significantly improved by the incorporation of additives and modifiers into the adhesive formulation. Fillers such as calcium carbonate, talc, and silicas are often used to adjust the viscosity of the liquid adhesive and the thermal expansion, modulus, and strength characteristics of the cured adhesive film. 

Other techniques can be used to achieve displacement of the adhesive from the weld area. This can be done through (1) use of an adhesive in tape form with a circle cut out from the expected weld areas or (2) masking the weld area before the liquid adhesive is applied to the substrate. 

The principal objective in surface preparation of wood for bonding is to provide a clean, undamaged surface that is flat and smooth and will permit the two pieces to mate properly when the liquid adhesive is applied between them. It is important not to damage the wood... 

When one is hand-mixing liquid adhesives or sealants, two methods are commonly employed to degas the mixed material (1) centrifuging and (2) subjecting the mixed system to a vacuum. The latter is the more popular method and requires only a vacuum pump and vacuum chamber. The vacuum pump should be capable of pulling a vacuum of 29 in Hg at a high rate of speed. 

Air can also be eliminated from an adhesive mixture by using a centrifuge. This process is generally employed only with low-viscosity, unfilled adhesives. The centrifuging process consists of rotating the materials at 1000 to 3000 rpm for 1 to 2 min. This is generally sufficient to remove any entrapped air from liquid adhesive systems. 

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