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Improving sustainability in production with solvent-free activators

16th August 2018

Enaie Azambuja

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DELO has developed two new activators accelerating the adhesion build-up of metal adhesives such as DELO-ML. They allow speeding up production even without containing solvents, which simplifies work safety measures. Activators reduce the curing time of metal adhesives, which achieve their strength under exclusion of oxygen. However, in contrast to metal adhesives or other reaction adhesives, most activators contain solvents.

As a result, these activators must first evaporate for a few minutes until the solvent has volatilised and the system has dried. This is not necessary for the low-viscous DELO-QUICK 5910 and the higher-viscous DELO-QUICK 5975.

Both activator and adhesive can be processed using the wet-on-wet method, without previous evaporation. The components can be joined directly after dispensing the activator. They can be further processed immediately, which reduces the cycle time in the production process.

Being solvent-free, the new activators eliminate the risk of solvent vapors emerging and the associated impact on human health and environment. No extraction systems are required in production and there is no need for explosion protection measures.

In addition, the fluorescent agents contained in the activators – a bluish one in DELO-QUICK 5910 and a reddish one in DELO-QUICK 5975 – allow the application process to be monitored visually via a camera, ensuring quality assurance.

Another advantage is that the activators improve humidity resistance when bonding metals such as stainless steel or aluminum. With DELO-QUICK 5975, this is even the case for nickel, which is considered difficult to bond because of its different coatings.

Both activators can be easily processed and applied by means of a rotor spray, an endless-piston dispenser, a pinch valve, brush coating, or spray coating.