Application areas

Automotive

Today’s adhesive consumption in cars already totals over 15 kg. In addition to the classic joining methods of welding and soldering, adhesives have steadily found use in cars. Not only are products for structural bonding in demand, but also, DELO’s high-tech adhesives that are used in many automotive applications. These include automotive electronics, bonding of sensitive sensors and cameras, and joining of light-weight materials such as CFRP. What is more, DELO and our partner Böllhoff jointly developed the special ONSERT® technology. With this method, fixing elements, such as thread inserts or clips, are bonded by special light-curing adhesives.

Case studies

Automotive cameras

Camera-based driver assistance systems are on the advance. Requirements on components are increasing as consumers demand the utmost quality and reliability in terms of lens structure and pixel density. DELO’s newly developed adhesives are especially suitable for the temperature-sensitive materials used in this field.

Special “mCD” adhesives cure at low temperatures. These are ideal for fast processes with high output since they cure very quickly. At the same time, they give high adhesion to many substrates.

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Sensor bonding

A multitude of sensors are used in cars. These include position sensors, speed sensors, concentration sensors, pressure sensors, fill level sensors, and many more. Bonding sensors requires special adhesives. They must protect the sensor from the environmental conditions prevailing at the point of use, such as elevated temperatures, high pressure, or aggressive media. The open contact areas of the housing must be reliably covered and protected from corrosion.

Sealing of PBT airbag sensors constitutes a customer challenge successfully addressed. This plastic type finds frequent use in the automotive industry as it gives good resistance to oil, fuel, and many solvents. Its surface has a low surface energy and represents a special challenge for adhesives. It is recommended that the components to be bonded are treated with an appropriate surface pretreatment method, which in this case is low pressure plasma. In order to achieve especially short cycle times in the fully automated process, a light-activated DELO-KATIOBOND was chosen. Its advantages include excellent adhesion, long-term resistance, and fast curing, which allows in-line quality control immediately after sealing.

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Automotive electronics

Electronic components in the automotive industry are subject to extreme stress. For example, semiconductor chips encapsulated on PCBs must be durable in a wide temperature range of use, withstand extreme forces and vibrations, and be resistant to aggressive media. DELO supplies a range of special chip encapsulants.

One example in this field is COB encapsulation on PCBs by RAFI Eltec. The SMD assemblies produced are Dam&Fill-encapsulated. Two beads of the first component, which is a DELOMONOPOX adhesive, are dispensed as “Dam” on top of each other, which are subsequently “Fill”-ed with a second epoxy resin. The encapsulation is cured in an air convection oven at 150 °C for 20 minutes. The adhesive used fulfills all requirements on solder resistance. It also gives a very homogeneous processing behavior, protects the component resp. the sensitive electronic parts from environmental influences, and performs excellently in reliability qualification tests. Therefore, it is ideal for high-reliability applications.

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ONSERT® method

DELO and BÖLLHOFF (provider of mechanical connection techniques such as riveting and screwing) share the same approach in terms of joining technology.

ONSERT® is an innovative joining method that unifies the connection elements adhesives and screws. With this method, fixing elements such as thread inserts or clips are bonded with special light-curing adhesives. This is how the advantages of bonding technology are combined with the strong points of removable connections. It is demanded by light-weight constructors in the automotive industry where more and more carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) are increasingly used. However, as boreholes may damage the materials, the ONSERT® method is ideal, such as when fixing cable harnesses to car bodies.

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