How To Improve Assembly Line With Adhesive Materials
Various adhesive material and adhesive tape have come to the aid of modern-day manufacturing lines. With lean manufacturing to the fore and technology evolving at a rapid speed, automobile manufacturers, in particular, are required to focus on lighter vehicles, which in turn means that engineers need to find new applications and materials to solve challenges posed by new designs in automotive manufacturing. Adhesive tape and Adhesive Material provides significantly efficient and effective bonding solutions for the assembly process in the automotive industries.
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Efficiency with speed and cost reduction
Adhesive tape is not only very successful in bonding with contemporary materials, but also easier and faster for application compared to traditional methods of fastening like screws, welds and rivets. Further, when adhesives are used for bonding, drilling or punching holes can also be avoided. Modern adhesive material also helps in eliminating the necessity to measure torque or double-check the fastening operations in assembly processes.
Speed is not the only benefit of adhesive tapes/adhesive material. These products are also less expensive compared to other methods of bonding. Some of the leading tape suppliers can also produce a tape that is die-cut to exacting specifications needed for bonding in areas like:-
- Console detailing
- Airbag components
- Upholstery
- Instrument panels with backlit graphics
- Weatherstripping
- Emblems
- Other applications needing lightweight strong bonding
Saves time even with challenging surfaces
Bonding glass to metal like in the case of the windshield or rearview mirror is an example of challenging surface for bonding. You can check with your vendor for products that meet such challenges. Most leading vendors provide top quality films that meet the process challenges and bonds within just about 30 seconds.
Adhesive tape is also suitable for challenges in bonding on the exterior surface of the vehicle. Certain structural bonding tapes with special adhesives are significantly effective when metal or plastic clips need to be bonded with primed or painted body parts. The structural strength from such heat-cured adhesive tapes is excellent and you can also avoid stamping holes on sheet metal.
Advanced adhesive tapes
Pressure-sensitive acrylic adhesives are gaining popularity as a preferred bonding medium for several applications across various industries replacing spray and liquid adhesives, mechanical fasteners and other systems of fastening and bonding. The performance characteristics of these advanced tapes are impressive and withstand harsh environments/high temperatures, bonding securely to several substrates. Consequently, engineers are able to reduce the overall assembly cost while eliminating cumbersome equipment and time-consuming procedures.
These high-performance acrylic tapes are easy to process and handle while improving efficiency and speed in the assembly operations and integrate smoothly in automated processes with in-line equipment for dispensing. These tapes can also be manually applied with about 10 pounds pressure. Conventional pressure-sensitive adhesive tapes often tend to bleed at the edges while the acrylic variant maintains integrity and stability during processing. They can also be placed accurately and cleanly allowing converters to produce diverse shapes and complex die cuts. Consequently, the need to machine parts or drill holes in advance necessary for mechanical fasteners is also avoided. With this state-of-the-art adhesive tape, you can also eliminate many of the outdated equipment and processes in your workplace.
Curing not needed
Another huge advantage with acrylic adhesive tape is that no cooling down post-application is needed, unlike the hot-melt adhesives. Similarly, liquid adhesives need a curing time of about a few hours which could extend up to a whole day. In contrast, the acrylic tapes bond immediately requiring no curing/cooling interval. Further certain variants of acrylic tapes can even be removed and repositioned post application which can be beneficial in manually controlled assembly operations so that rejection of parts can potentially be reduced.
Consumer electronics
Acrylic adhesive tape offers particularly low outgassing and strong adhesion making them a convenient choice for a wide range of consumer electronic applications. These tapes can also come in very thin dimensions so as to accommodate space constraints in modern digital offerings. A key example of this is hard disks. Acrylic tapes answer chemical cleanliness requirements for the application and can be shaped accurately to fit varying drive configurations. Consequently, these tapes help in protecting the disk from vibration and heat during use.
Other applications within this segment include light-blocking tape for device/computer screens, distortion limiting optically clear tape, lens protection tape for preventing damage from scratches and dirt etc. For controlling operating temperature, the acrylic tape is also offered in a thermally conductive variant for transfer of heat from LED/other sources of heat.
Automotive applications
In Automotive applications, acrylic adhesive tape presents robust resistance and excellent high-temperature characteristics to harsh materials and substances – properties which equip these tapes for a wide range of automotive applications. The performance of these tapes is reliable at temperatures of 400oF and intermittent temperatures can rise up to 450oF. They are also ideal under load like when applied around the corners.
Appliance applications
Appliance applications too need adhesives capable of withstanding high temperature and resisting damage from harsh materials. Acrylic adhesive tape is finding increased application in washing machines, dishwashers and dryers. These tapes attach securely the stiffeners and sound-damping foams in such appliances reducing vibration and noise. They are an ideal replacement for mechanical fasteners in control panels etc eliminating the necessity to drill holes and helping to speed up assembly. Microwaves, cooktops and ovens are other typical application areas for adhesive tapes to maintain strength in spite of exposure to cooking oils, harsh substances and food acids.
Conclusion
Given the pace at which technology is evolving, there are many helpful innovations that can significantly improve your processes and assembly line. Keeping constantly in touch with these innovations will work significantly to your advantage.
