October 15-17, 2024 at Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida
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Expo Hours

Tuesday Oct 15 9 AM — 5 PM
Wednesday Oct 16 9 AM — 5 PM
Thursday Oct 17 9 AM — 4 PM

Venue

Orange County Convention Center

9800 International Drive
Orlando, Florida 32819

About the Expo

North America's largest metal forming, fabricating, welding and finishing event heads to Orange County Convention Center in October 2024. FABTECH provides a convenient "one stop shop" venue where you can meet with world-class suppliers, see the latest industry products and developments, and find the tools to improve productivity, increase profits and discover new solutions to all of your metal forming, fabricating, welding and finishing needs.

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North America's Largest Metal Forming, Fabricating, Welding and Finishing Event

From the Blog

Understanding New Developments in Next-Generation Acrylic Adhesive Technology

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By John E. Hill, PhD on on
When significant commercial use of acrylic adhesives began in the 1960’s, these “first-generation” systems were brittle and targeted plastic bonding. Poly-methyl methacrylate was dissolved in methyl methacrylate – almost like a “syrup” – and an accelerator “lacquer” used at a high-mix ratio. As development continued, the “second-generation” systems were tougher, and had improved temperature performance and improved bonding to bare metals. They included butadiene rubber tougheners and metal adhesion promoters, and 1:1 and 4:1 mix ratios with formulated accelerators. “Second-generation” acrylic structural adhesives have delivered effective bonding performance in a variety of commercial applications throughout the last 30 years. The “next-generation” acrylic adhesives systems had improved elongation and fatigue resistance. These include advanced terpolymer and core-shell rubber tougheners, blends of polymerizable monomers and a 10:1 mix ratio. New developments in these systems, which commonly use methyl methacrylate as the primary polymerizable monomer, are able to deliver bond strengths that approach or exceed the strength of the substrate. Next-generation acrylic adhesives offer improved performance for more demanding applications. The enhanced performance characteristics include: improved elongation, improved impact and fatigue resistance, excellent high- and low-temperature performance, and more robust bonding to a wider variety of substrates. These next-generation adhesives’ non-toxic formulation make them REACH-compliant for global use. As a replacement for welding and riveting, acrylic adhesives can be used in bonding applications in the automotive, truck/trailer and enclosure industries. Acrylic adhesives can also be used for bonding or joining where mechanical fastening may not be possible or practical, such as with sign, facades and recreational vehicle and marine applications. Acrylic adhesives can offer distinct advantages over riveting/welding in terms of strength, impact, fatigue, durability, distribution of stress, aesthetics, corrosion and process simplicity/cost. They are ideal for applications in several manufacturing and fabricating segments including commercial vehicles, wind and energy equipment, and industrial products. The newest developments in next-generation acrylic adhesives offers superior lap shear strength, high elongation and high bake resistance combined with excellent failure mode across difficult-to-bond metal substrates.acrylic-structural-adhesives-chart Learn more about how acrylic adhesives have evolved to offer improved performance for more demanding applications during FABTECH 2016 Session F89: Advanced Metals & Materials. on Nov. 18 at 10:30 am in Room N205-N206. My presentation is titled, “New Developments in Next Generation Acrylic Adhesive Technology”. Get sessions details here. [x_author title=”About the Author”]

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