Metal bonding adhesives are used in many day-to-day items, such as computers, mobile phones, insulation/solar panels, and medical devices. They are also used extensively in manufacturing. Let’s take a look at why they are used and four common types.
Why use metal bonding adhesives?
Metal bonding adhesives have numerous advantages over mechanical fasteners or other joining methods, such as welding or soldering.
They can be used on dissimilar metals with different melting points, do not require holes to be drilled, and don’t cause discolouration or distortion. Metal bonding adhesives are generally ‘invisible’, able to resist stresses, and can be used to join irregularly shaped surfaces.
Metal bonding adhesive specialists
If you feel you or your business could benefit from the use of metal bonding adhesives, there are a number of companies with expertise in this arena. Many of these companies, such as https://www.ct1.com/product-applications/metal-to-metal-adhesive, have useful online resources.
Types of metal bonding adhesives
Metal adhesives usually fall into one of two groups: machinery, and structural. Structural adhesives can bear ‘structural’ loads, whilst machinery adhesives are used in applications where this is not required.
The four types of most commonly used metal bonding adhesives are epoxy, acrylic, cyanoacrylate, and anaerobic.
Epoxy adhesives are very strong. They come in several varieties, with each offering unique properties. These bonding adhesives can consist of either one or two components.
Acrylic metal adhesives can be either surface-activated or bead-on-bead-activated. Surface-activated varieties involve applying a resin to one substrate and an initiator to the other, while bead-on-bead varieties involve applying a small bead of adhesive on each substrate prior to connecting them.
Cyanoacrylate adhesives offer instant connections in a similar way to superglue. They can be used on most reactive metals, such as brass and copper. Cyanoacrylate adhesives are popular amongst miniature/modelling hobbyists.
Anaerobic metal adhesives are only suitable for joining metal to metal. This is because they need an absence of oxygen and the presence of metal to cure. This type of adhesive is good for gasketing, retaining, thread sealing, or thread-locking
