Materials Identification & Characterisation
Glues and adhesives are used all over Ireland and knowing the right glues and adhesives to use, is critical. The selection and evaluation of the right glue or adhesive depends on several factors including the intended application method, the materials being bonded, and the expected service life of the bonded component in its use environment, is a mission critical aspect to any manufacturing process.
The adhesive may be correct for the materials but not in the expected service environment or the glue or adhesive may be correct but not suitable for the manufacturing process, there are so many hurdles to jump over.
Still again, in repair situations, there is often a need to know what type of adhesive was used to fabricate an article to ensure that the same adhesive is used in the repair.
We are often contacted by manufacturing companies who want to know if their bonded component can resist moisture and or high temperatures or freezing or deep freezing.
An extensive knowledge of the chemistry of adhesives and our decades of expertise in a huge array of materials including plastics, metals and composites, amongst others.
We have the expertise to suggest both the optimum adhesive for your manufacturing requirement and the laboratory facilities to tell you what type of adhesive was used to bond certain materials.
The Problem: An American company had established a plastic component fabrication plant in Ireland. Unfortunately, the newly established Irish plant were having difficulty in establishing what type of adhesive was being used to bond polycarbonate to itself but needed to find out fast.
The Process: Our laboratory was contacted and within four days, we had a chemist on the plastic fabricators site. The chemist collected both some of the polycarbonate parts and lucky for us all, some prototype parts originally fabricated in the US with the US sourced adhesive.
The Result: Using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) , we were able to determine the chemical composition of the adhesive used to make the US manufactured part. Search the spectra obtained against reference spectra from our libraries showed that the adhesive was a two-component methacrylate type.
Adhesive manufacturers, Specifiers, Product Designers, Sales Agents, Production Managers, Architects, Building Contractors, Surveyors and Solicitors.
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