ADHESIVE BONDING

Tantec UK & Ireland is an industry-leader in the world of surface treatments and is a trusted supplier to organisations within a number of industries including automotive and medical devices.

We’re constantly liaising with our customers to help them achieve the best adhesive properties for their products. As respected experts in the sector, we’re often approached by new and existing customers seeking expert solutions for their requirements. 

Sprayed, brushed, gunned or robot-applied adhesives – along with pressure-sensitive adhesives on tapes and labels – can be difficult to bond on to the wrong materials. That’s why our innovative range of products provide world-class pre-treatment operations to prepare your material surface in the right way, enabling a significant increase in performance and consistency, allowing you to choose from a wider variety of products.

What is Adhesive Bonding?

Simply put, adhesive bonding is the joining together of two surfaces via an even bond. It often involves the use of an adhesive such as an epoxy or polyurethane which bonds two materials together. This could be through a curing process utilising time, UV light, heat, pressure or solvent evaporation. The benefit of this technology is that it can be applied to various materials including metals, plastics, glass, rubber and ceramics. It can even be used to combine contrasting materials and irregularly shaped surfaces, without impacting the dimensions of the component.

How Tantec UK & Ireland can help

Our world-class surface treatment systems utilise Plasma or Corona Treatments to ensure the component’s surface provides the optimum conditions required for your chosen adhesive. We work with some of the world’s leading OEM, tier one and tier two suppliers in industries including automotive, aerospace and medical devices.

Performance Increase

Tantec UK & Ireland’s experts regularly get consulted about how to improve performance for our customers. Our plasma and corona surface treatment systems are renowned for providing high-quality finishes that can drive product performance. As a result of our work, we often see improvements in adhesion strength, higher repeatability and consistency of performance and the ability to use adhesives in different ways, such as smaller and thinner bond areas.

An example is a project in the medical devices sector, where our customer was having issues bonding stainless steel needles into polypropylene plastic syringe hubs. This required an adhesive that would stick to both the metal and plastic. Our leading surface treatment systems solved the issue when treating the plastic component, activating and raising the surface energy to harmonise the two materials. This led to a huge increase in bond strength by over 1000%.

Wider Choice of Adhesives

Not only do our surface treatment systems provide industry-leading quality; they also enable our customers to be more versatile in the range of adhesives and materials they use. When choosing an adhesive, it’s important to take into account its chemical resistance, temperature resistance or elongation. Tantec UK and Ireland’s innovative Plasma and Corona Systems have been proven to improve adhesive performance on to a wide variety of materials, allowing customers to focus on which adhesive and material are best suited for their task.

A great example is our work with a number of OEM, tier one and tier two automotive manufacturers. These organisations, especially when it comes to interior applications, use a range of materials that must be bonded correctly before going out on the road, especially where a customer can touch the part, or where noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) issues occur. A large number of interior components, whether it’s plastic trims or the dashboard, consist of multiple materials such as bonded foams and leather-effect coatings. These all have to be bonded tightly, performing their roles within the vehicle.  Therefore it’s vital that their surfaces are treated and prepared to enable the best adhesive performance possible.

Operator Friendly Technology

Here at Tantec UK & Ireland, we’re constantly striving to improve our technologies and make them as environmentally-friendly as possible. As our systems are either stand-alone or integrated into automated production lines, no harsh chemical washes or primers are used – both of which are bad for the environment and your company’s employees. 

Unlike dusty abrasion, Plasma and Corona Treatment is clean and highly repeatable with operator interaction usually limited to loading, unloading and pressing “go”. Our high-performance, cost-effective surface treatment systems use electricity and air, meaning they are much more compatible with the environment and operator safety.