Appliance manufacturers face many challenges on the assembly line. They need to produce reliable and long-lasting appliances in high volumes, quickly and at the lowest cost. In order to do so, they need materials that can keep up – materials that deliver increased performance and efficiency in the final home appliance. Materials themselves can sometimes also present their own set of challenges in assembly and sealing; for instance, some adhesives or sealants may require surface treatment to ensure durable adhesion, thus slowing down the assembly line process. Or they are unable to bond to different types of substrates, limiting the types of materials a manufacturer has at its disposal to produce cost-effective appliances. Dow Corning recently launched two new adhesive and sealant products for the industrial assembly and maintenance market, which address these manufacturing needs for materials with greater performance and efficiency, as well as delivering on enhanced design options and cost-in-use savings. This article will explore these materials in more detail.
Recently launched Dow Corning® 750 plastic surface adhesive sealant and Dow Corning HM-2600 silicone assembly sealant have been engineered to provide appliance manufacturers with higher productivity, enhanced design options and cost-in-use savings. As Figure 1 demonstrates, one of the key benefits for both of these new solutions is their exceptional bond strength to a wide variety of substrates. Of particular interest to manufacturers will be that they both outperform general-purpose silicone adhesives when it comes to bonding to low-surface-energy plastics like polypropylene and polyethylene, which are widely used in appliances like refrigerators and washing machines. Like with all silicone-based products, the products also offer stability over a wide temperature range, are UV, weather and radiation resistant, chemically stable, and display excellent electrical properties and low flammability. With their excellent bonding to less-expensive plastics, appliance designers have more material solutions to choose from, which can considerably lower total costs. Additionally, each of these new materials offers manufacturers solutions to fit their specific assembly processing needs; not only giving them high-performing bonding properties, but also offering greater flexibility to adapt to their equipment set up, economies of scale and size of operations.