Glu Guru March 10, 2009 Journal
ADHESIVE FOCUS NEWS JOURNAL

The Glu Guru welcomes you to the Adhesive Newsletter

Cost Cutting Information helpful to your
Production and Packaging Needs

Why Methacrylates? A comparison between Epoxies, Urethanes and Methacrylates

Epoxies
Advantages

Usually low priced
Good gap filling capabilities

Limitations
· Adhesives thin during curing cycles
Epoxies lack solvating ability, as a result they generally perform poorly on thermoplastics and require careful cleaning or surface preparation on metals and composites. Epoxies can exhibit very high strength but are limited in impact, particularly at low temperature

Urethanes
Advantages

Moderately priced
Excellent toughness and flexibility
Good flexibility at low pressure
Excellent adhesives for a wide range of materials
One-two componnent, room or heat-cure available
Varying Cure times

Limitations

Poor temperature resistance
Sensitive to moisture both in cured and uncured state
May undergo reversal with heat and moisture
Two component mixing or single component toxicity
Short pot life
Require special equipment to mix and dispense

Urethanes can have good adhesion to metals and composites but, like epoxies, have some weakness in thermoplastic bonding and often require primers to bond. The structure of urethanes can give them excellent performance at low temperatures, but they weaken quickly at high temperatures.

Methacrylates
Advantages

Moderately priced
Good gap filling
Excellent impact resistance and flexibility
Substrate versatility
Medium/fast cure
Tolerant of dirty surfaces
Can be dispensed from most packages
Good flexibility at low temperatures

Limitations

Some odor problems
Flammable

ITW PLEXUS, manufacturers of PLEXUS Methacrylate Adhesives, reports that the methacrylate technology of today represents "a quantum leap over the past performance of the more traditional acrylic technology" and was developed to fill the shortcomings such as the brittleness, gap filling and less than reliable cures of the early acrylics

The PLEXUS structural methacrylate adhesives provide superior performance across a wide range of substrates including today's most advanced, difficult to bond plastics.

EASY TO MIX AND APPLY: Plexus two component adhesives are combined in a ratio of 1:1, allowing them to be mixed and dispensed using manual or less sophisticated non-metered dispensing equipment.

WIDE RANGE OF SUBSTRATES...Methacrylate adhesives are compatible with a wide range of substrates including: Stainless Steel, Epoxy Coated Surfaces, PVC, ABS, Aluminum,Styrenecs, Steel, Noryl, Azloy, Rynite, Valox, Lomod, RIM Urethane, SMC, Xenoy, Bexloy, Ceramics and Ferrites.

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