HIGH PERFORMANCE RUBBER TO METAL ADHESIVES DESIGNED FOR SEVERE ENVIRONMENTS

摘要

In today's competitive global market the need for enhanced product life continually increases. It goes without saying that tomorrow's rubber to metal bonded parts, regardless of whether they are automotive parts, oil drilling components or high performance dynamic oil seals, will all be designed to deliver enhanced durability above and beyond what is being offered today. Improved long term part durability is normally accomplished with either changes to part design and/or material selection; with the latter being the most common. As an adhesive supplier it is our mission to stay abreast of these changes and what affect they may have on the performance of our adhesives. Sometimes all that is needed is a minor adhesive composition change, but other times an entire reformulation is necessary to deliver the required level of performance called for by the customer. Unfortunately, time does not always permit one to evaluate new adhesives on finished molded rubber bonded parts in their service environments for their intended life span; so other test methods are employed. Accelerated test methods have been adopted as substitutes to compress the proposed life of these products to a reasonable yet representative duration. On occasion, accelerated test methods are more severe than what the bonded assemblies are required to survive in-service. In this case, adhesives must withstand environments that are sometimes far more severe than what the actual manufactured parts would ever be exposed to; just to gain consideration for use. It is the aim of this paper to cover the results of the mentioned accelerated bond tests used in-house to approximate the proposed durability of both the adhesive and the finished bonded assembly. Such data provides end users with a good starting point for adhesive selection for such applications where extended exposure to severe environments is the rule rather than the exception.