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ADHESIVES

Solid bond on first contact

Adhesives are part of many industries’ supply cycles. Many businesses, such as the shoe industry, rely on rapid-bonding and efficient adhesives to support their very dynamic production cycles. High-performance synthetic rubbers provide the solutions they need. 

These elastomers not only find their application in technical rubber goods and tires but also in the adhesive industry as raw materials or as modifiers for adhesives and sealants. Elastomers can give the adhesive more flexible bond lines, better wetting and tackiness, can improve impact resistance or may act as a viscosity modifier and toughener.

ARLANXEO products for the adhesive industry

There’s a panoply of adhesives available in the market to tackle various needs. ARLANXEO’s adhesive offerings include nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) sold under the trade names Perbunan®, Krynac® and Baymod® N, which is commonly used as raw materials in contact adhesives, sealants, or as impact modifiers.

NBR-based contact adhesive applications are found in PVC plastics, coated fabrics, wood, composites and foams.

Perbunan® is ideal for the automotive, construction and machine industries as well as for food contact applications.

Baypren®, the polychloroprene rubber from ARLANXEO, is a perfectly suitable raw material for contact adhesives and can additionally be used in sealants or as a modifier for reactive adhesives.

Thermoplastic polymers setting at room temperature

Commonly used adhesives which are part of our daily lives, through things like bookbindings, diapers, our shoes, and food packaging, are hotmelts. These solvent- and water-free adhesives are based on thermoplastic polymers. Stable in storage, they ensure short bonding times and high initial bonding or setting strength.

Governed by the crystallinity of the base polymer, hotmelts can be softened, reshaped, and dispensed upon heating beyond a certain softening point. They can then regain full-strength solidification properties at room temperature seconds after dispensing.

ARLANXEO’s Levamelt® product range acts as a viscosity modifier and can help to adjust the melting properties. Levamelt® copolymers can meet the demanding requirements of industrial applications such as adhesives, PVC modifiers and film builders. They provide reliable adhesive strength even when thinly applied.

High vinyl acetate content Levamelt® grades offer improved adhesion characteristics and better low-temperature adhesion. These are ideal properties in the formulation of pressure-sensitive hotmelt adhesives. 

Structural adhesives designed for robust applications

When high strength performance, toughness, flexibility and ease of use are required for industrial bonding of metals, plastics and composites, structural adhesives are the answer. Methyl Methacrylate Adhesives, or MMA’s, are structural adhesives designed to join disparate surfaces to form parts used as load-bearing structures. MMA's are often used to replace welding or riveting – as it allows for high-impact bonding of a wider range of materials (including metal, magnets, plastic, glass, wood, and composite materials).

The greater flexibility made possible by their inbuilt rubber properties also makes MMA's ideal for applications requiring wide thermal ranges. They are widely used in sectors such as aerospace, automotive, and transportation.

As elastomeric components for MMA adhesives, ARLANXEO is offering Baypren®, Levamelt®, Krynac® and Perbunan®.

The chloroprene rubbers of the Baypren® series are available with different chain lengths to adjust the viscosity of the MMA adhesive and the properties of the cured bond line.

Rubbers for epoxy resin adhesives

Certain demanding applications requiring higher resistance to UV light, ozone or aging reactions at high temperatures often call for epoxy adhesive. Typical basic epoxy formulations comprise an epoxy resin which is mixed together with a hardener. These are widely used in the electronic, construction, automotive and aeronautic industry. ARLANXEO’s Levapren® brand is a cost-effective EVM specialty for these most demanding applications.

Pressure sensitive adhesives (PSA)

Today, a world without pressure sensitive adhesives (PSA) is inconceivable. For adhesive tapes, labeling, medical dressing, graphic films or also in the automotive sector, PSAs have found numerous applications. Depending on the PSA the adhesive is designed to adhere permanently or only temporarily on the surfaces. 

With Levamelt® both temporary and permanent adhesion is possible. Levamelt® is a pure viscoelastic material that has a vinyl acetate content between 40 – 90 wt% with melt flow indices (MFI) between 2-35 g/10min. With Levamelt® peel forces are adjustable just by choosing the proper vinyl acetate content. That means Levamelt® can be used in low peel applications where an easy removal of the film is crucial.

Levamelt® can be used as an adhesive even for delicate surfaces like car coatings where a migration of a plasticizer or tackifier will harm the surface. Here formulations based on Levamelt® without any plasticizer or tackifier will deliver sufficient adhesion for a temporary protective film. For medical application, Levamelt® can be used as a temporary skin adhesive.

X_Butyl®'s tack, ageing resistance and low permeability make it the ideal polymer for a variety of adhesive and sealing applications. Our X_Butyl® products are used in adhesive formulations for transparent tapes, hot melt pressure sensitive adhesives, mastic for pipe wrap tapes, as well as flooring and roofing adhesives. They are also used for self-fusing, electrical splicing tapes, eliminating the need for separate adhesive coats.

Related Topics

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Baypren®

ARLANXEO’s Baypren® portfolio for rubber applications provide very good resistance to tear, abrasion, fatigue, and crack propagation to the rubber industry.

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Levamelt®

Formed by copolymerization of ethylene and vinyl acetate, Levamelt® is a versatile and flexible polymer for durable adhesives and films.

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NBR

Nitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR) is a copolymer made from butadiene and acrylonitrile. NBR is essential for technical rubber products that need to be resistant to mineral oils, service fluids, and greases in automotive applications and machinery.