Industrial adhesive bonding is emerging, weight reduction being the no. 1 driver. However, to realise large-scale implementation, its reliability must be warranted. This is so far the biggest challenge. Flanders Make has disposal of high-tech test and validation infrastructure to test different types of adhesives and adhesive bonding processes, automate these processes and perform accelerated lifetime tests on pieces joined together through adhesive bonding. For this new living lab, we’ve set up a very specific adhesive bonding installation.
In our Joining & Materials Lab, we test and validate adhesive bonding techniques. In this way, we help companies to make the right choices for joining the various products materials when designing new products, paying special attention to adhesive bonds. This joining technique is gaining importance as adhesive bonding allows to realise strong lightweight joints between different types of materials. Still, it is important to maintain a stable production process and use the right process parameters.
For this, it was essential to have disposal of a mixing-dosing plant with a wide range of possibilities. Because this machine is used in a research environment, where by definition smaller quantities and different types of adhesives are used, the machine had to be adapted to this. A rapid conversion and cleaning must be warranted. In addition, it must be possible to work with different products, both 1-component and 2-component systems. Finally, we wanted to be able to use products with a very wide viscosity range because in the Joining & Materials Lab, we perform tests in many different, industry-relevant conditions.
Delta Application Technics is specialised in the design and production of application and dosing devices for liquid and soft products. They offer an overall concept: from defining the design in cooperation with the client to the construction, commissioning and integration of the solution, such both for manual and automated applications. Robots and cobots play indeed an important role in improving difficult or repetitive adhesive bonds.
This video shows how – through Virtual Reality – a cobot is programmed to execute an adhesive bonding job:
Flanders Make invests in high-tech research infrastructure so that companies don’t need to do this. It not only makes available state-of-the-art technologies to companies, which they can use to test and validate new products and applications, the researchers of Flanders Make also offer knowledge and insights in view of achieving a good result.
In our Joining & Materials Lab companies can test their own developments or can validate new applications in industry-relevant conditions. Both the development infrastructure and the infrastructure for sustainability tests can be used under different climatic conditions (humidity level, temperature and UV).
The original article was published by Delta Application Technics.
Flanders Make is a member of the Knowledge Cluster Adhesive Bonding, a brand new initiative supported by Mikrocentrum.
Flanders Make is an initiative supported by the Flemish Government, the Limburg Fund and the ERDF.
