The application of crash durable structural adhesives in modern cars design, to improve the driving durability, the overall vehicle stiffness, the crash resistance and to make real light weight constructions feasible is significantly gaining in importance.
1-component systems are already introduced in the market and used in automotive industries. Usually the use of these bonds in automotive industries is limited by a relatively low wash off resistance in the pre-treatment tanks of the paint shop.
If no additional actions are taken, there is a severe risk of wash off of the adhesives up to the partial loss in functionality. Respectively contamination of the pre-treatment tanks and aftereffects damage the surface of the coated cars.
To avoid wash off a thermal process (oven) to pre-gel the adhesive in the flanges of the Body-In-White (BIW)- bodies before entering the pre-treatment utility is necessary. This is a save but cost intensive solution.
Therefore the strategy is to develop a “cold BIW process” with the use of wash off resistant adhesives. In corporation with our partner a new generation of adhesives was developed that enables us to overcome the limitations of the current process and to achieve the targets for cost benefits, sustainability and innovation.