The adhesive lines carried by Chemical Concepts are some of the most advanced available in the market. But even the perfect adhesive doesn’t stand a chance when it’s used on a poorly prepared surface. Just a few minutes of preparation on your part can play a big role in helping to ensure that your surface is ready to go.

Here are a few important tips that can help you feel confident that your surface is ready for adhesion.

Make sure the surface has good wetting properties

An adhesive’s success is largely dependent upon its ability to wet out a surface. This means that the adhesive must be able to flow out across the substrate surface and penetrate into its material.

An adhesive with good wetting properties will not form beads on the substrate surface. You don’t want the adhesive to pull itself together into little droplets on the surface; instead the goal is for it to distribute itself evenly across the surface. An effective test for whether a surface can be wetted effectively or not is by spraying distilled water over the surface and noting how much the water beads on the surface. If you see big, round droplets, you might want to reconsider. If the drops of water flatten out to some degree, the wetting properties are more likely to work.

Ensure the surface won’t unaccountably change

Another assurance of good adhesion is checking to make sure that your surface doesn’t change when exposed to different types of environments. One common example would be surfaces that deteriorate when they’re exposed to moisture. Constancy, no matter the environment, is a key to ensuring the success of your adhesive.

Consider pretreatment methods

While many adhesives typically do not require a primer, one may be needed to ensure adhesion. Additionally, surface preparation and pretreatment methods can be used, such as:

• Cleaning in a method that’s appropriate for the surface.
• Deburring.
• Etching.

Adhesive in the Spotlight

Let’s take a quick look at a popular adhesive used in many types of automotive and machining applications.

LORD 310 Adhesive

LORD® 310 adhesive is a modified, thixotropic, two-component epoxy adhesive system used to bond many types of prepared metals, prepared rubber, urethane and plastics. Originally formulated for primerless adhesion to SMC, LORD 310 adhesive is used to bond disk drives, down-hole oil field equipment, automotive body panels and spoilers, and vibration dampening mounts. LORD 310 adhesive can be either room temperature cured or heat cured for faster processing. Our customers appreciate how this adhesive is:

• environmentally friendly – it contains no solvent, is nonflammable and is virtually odorless.
• environmentally resistant – this adhesive resists moisture, sunlight, salt spray and thermal cycling. 

View our entire line of LORD adhesives here.

Our experienced sales team can help you determine what adhesives work best for your particular project, as well as offer helpful advice for how to ensure that your project prep will help your adhesive to work as its intended. Call us with your questions at 800-220-1966. Or send us an email at sales@chemical-concepts.com. We’ll be happy to help!