Dear Readers, In our “clear as glass” newsletter we inform you about customer applications and DELO adhesives for the glass industry twice a year. If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact us: press@delo.de. Enjoy your reading! |
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Bake, bake the cake
DELO adhesives bond ovens by Electrolux Rothenburg GmbH
Christmas time is baking time. The ovens in German kitchens will run at full load soon. DELO adhesive now also finds its use in this area. The control faceplate for Electrolux ovens is assembled by bonding a glass plate into an oven faceplate made of stainless steel. For this purpose, only a few drops of the light-curing DELO-PHOTOBOND AD494 adhesives are used per faceplate.
First, a two-component silicone is applied to the stainless steel faceplate by a dispensing robot. Afterwards, the same dispensing robot applies the light-curing DELO-PHOTOBOND adhesives via a dispensing valve. Then, the glass plate is attached.
The adhesive is light-cured within a few seconds, using the special DELOLUX 20 LED area lamps at 400 nm. In this process, the adhesive has to reliably bridge a bonding gap of approx. 0.5 mm, and compensate tolerances. “The bonded connection is supposed to ensure that the glass plate is accurately fixed in its position during the production process”, explains Alexander Wörner, Sales Engineer at DELO Industrial Adhesives. The reason is that the two-component silicone requires a curing time of 2 hours at room temperature after application. During this period, however, it must be ensure that both components are fixed in the correct position.
The one-component DELO-PHOTOBOND AD494 acrylate is suitable for bonding glass to plastic, glass to glass, and glass to metal. The combination of light curing and UV curing makes it also possible to cure components made of hardly translucent materials, such as plastic. The adhesive’s advantages include its excellent flexibility even at lower temperatures and its ability to equalize high tensions thanks to its high elongation at tear. As a consequence, mixed bondings of materials with dissimilar coefficients of expansion, such as plastic and glass, are possible. The very high viscosity of 50,000 mPas allows adhesive layer thicknesses up to approx. 2 mm. The advantage of this is that the high-viscous adhesive fills gaps very well. Therefore, the components do not have to be exactly plane-parallel. Furthermore, the high viscosity makes the adhesive easier to dispense and increases its impact resistance.
Filigree glass façades for ultimate requirements
DELO supplies light-curing adhesives
Hunsrücker Glasveredelung and the adhesive manufacturer presented sophisticated and filigree glass façades at the glasstec trade fair in Düsseldorf, Germany, in September. The steel/glass composite fins used are structurally bonded hybrid supports. What is special about the construction is that the glass supports are reinforced by stainless steel straps.
The potential of this innovation is most clearly described by the following analogy. Just as steel in reinforced concrete strongly improves the concrete’s performance, so this “armoring” of the glass fins significantly increases the loading capacity. What’s more, the residual loading capacity, in other words the stability after possible glass breakage, is clearly extended, while the depth and thickness of the glass fins are reduced. This makes for a more filigree appearance.
The glass fins are bonded with the light-curing DELO-PHOTOBOND GB484 acrylate. Its advantages include fast curing within seconds by means of an LED strip. Unlike the normally used black silicones, this adhesive gives full transparency. Thanks to the higher strength, the gaps bonded with DELO’s light-curing acrylate can be designed smaller, and therefore more filigree than with silicone.
New design possibilities thanks to hybrid construction
The hybrid composite construction gives architects the opportunity to use a modular system that opens up individual options for the final design. On the one hand, all advantages of a system solution are made available, which means a highly insulating façade, for example. On the other hand, the highly transparent constructions desired can be implemented at minimal material expenses. This innovative façade system will also be shown at the “Bau” trade fair in Munich, Germany, in January 2011.