New Cured-In-Place Gasket Technology Using UV-Cured High Performance Elastomers

Cured-In-Place Gaskets have been demonstrated as a viable, economical sealing choice for a number of automotive applications. Historically, this market has been limited by material choice, which has almost exclusively been the domain of liquid silicone (VMQ) and polyurethane (PU). New technology has been developed which expands the choices of elastomers that can be used in Cured-In-Place gaskets. Seals made with high performance elastomers such as ethylene acrylic elastomers (AEM) and fluoroelastomers (FKM) can now take advantage of this “efficient” process. These materials can be robotically dispensed using equipment similar to what is used in the “hot melt” adhesives industry and then cured with a UV-light source. These UV-cured seals exhibit mechanical properties similar to what their traditionally cured alternatives show and still maintain the excellent heat and fluid resistance of these polymers. These compounds have little or no filler and no adhesive is used, making them ideal choices for applications that require a low level of contamination. This technology has been shown to work with a number of elastomeric families of polymers.

In this paper this new technology will be introduced and relevant properties of UV-cured elastomers will be reviewed.