Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Plastics News China
  • Rubber & Plastics News
logo-pn-color
Subscribe
  • Login
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • End Markets
    • FYI Charts
    • LSR World
    • Multimedia
    • NPE2021
    • K Show
    • Special Reports
    • Top materials of injection molders
      Recycled PET use by product category
      US PET, flexible packaging desintations
      Global fluropolymers additives market: CAGR
    • NPE exhibitors question handling of deposits for canceled trade show
      Exhibitors back NPE cancellation: ‘We couldn't take that risk'
      NPE2021 canceled as in-person event
      NPE reviews its options as pandemic prompts exhibitor to exit
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • What Keeps You Up At Night
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Videos
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • CEO Issue
    • Best Places to Work
    • Processor of the Year
    • Rising Stars
    • Women Breaking the Mold
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • Heavy Metal
    • One Good Resin
    • BRICS and Plastics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Perspective: Making the best of working from home
      Nypro's Gordon Lankton left the plastics industry a better place
      Recognizing Plastek Industries for all-around excellence
      Let's look forward, rather than back, to mark COVID anniversary
    • Kickstart: Plastics ready to take flight on Mars
      Kickstart: Let's hear it for leftovers
      Kickstart: Big data, big bowls and consumer packaging
      Kickstart: A vexing vaccination question
    • Heavy Metal: Coronavirus edition, plus the work of working from home
      Don't put off succession planning
      What's a good gift for your cobot? Batteries?
      Here's some big ideas to mull over the holidays
    • PE resin trends highlighted in Shell report
      Dow's Lowry honored by World Economic Forum for sustainability work
      Africa impacts new colors from Ampacet
      Plaskolite marches into madness with its own online bracket
    • Climate debate in Washington increasingly includes plastic
      There was no choice but canceling NPE still a big deal
      The business case for producer responsibility
      Think divided government stalls plastics legislation? Think again
    • Want prices? Introducing historical resin pricing, now available in a downloadable form
      A new annual ranking: Top processor gains
      Thermoformers: Would you believe a 12 percent gain?
      Just how big is thermoforming in North America?
    • Working from home: Rugrats edition
      Nypro's Gordon Lankton left the plastics industry a better place
      Let's look forward, rather than back, to mark COVID anniversary
      Virtual pitfalls derail exhibits for builders' trade show
    • PEX pipe maker Uponor donates $30,000 for Texas storm relief
      Virtual pitfalls derail exhibits for builders' trade show
      PPI puts $200 bounty on exhumed HDPE conduit
      Raise the roof: Housing starts hit a 12-year high
    • Perspective: Making the best of working from home
      Perspective: The Materials Wars: Is plastic actually better?
      Perspective: Plastics manufacturers — a surprising contribution to sustainability
      Plastics industry business owners: Listen to your future workforce
    • Mailbag: Additional fees for electric vehicles ‘unfortunate'
      Mailbag: Where's the plastics industry's response to critics?
      Mailbag: Manufacturers struggling to follow COVID-19 safety rules
      Modernizing recycling infrastructure will benefit businesses as well as the environment
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
    • Maintenance can ensure efficient blender operation
      Dosing: Perfect for adding color
      Blending vs dosing: What you need to know
      Going low or high: Comparing volume
    • Colors and custom compounds
      In the laboratory: Compounding solutions
      Recycling content: Resins going ‘green’
      Compounding: Glass and other fillers
    • Dryer maintenance: Don’t err with air
      Dryers: Options for a shop’s process
      Dryer installation: Going central?
      Resins: Hygroscopic or non-hygroscopic
    • Electric injection molding presses: Efficiency is key
      Hydraulic injection molding machines
      Proper maintenance can prevent downtime
      Hybrid injection molding machines
    • Purging Hot runners: Open or closed methods
      Purging extrusion machinery
      Purging extrusion blow molding machines
      Purging: Chemical, abrasive and non-abrasive
    • Controls, special applications boost production, profitability
      Robot maintenance key for smooth operation
      High-speed robots: A rapid way to increase efficiency
      Robots: Every shape and size
    • Maintenance: Key for efficiency
      Shredders: Plastic in pieces
      Safety first for size reduction
      Granulators: The right fit
    • Video: Structural foam molding
      Structural foam molding: Flexibility for processors
    • Mold inventory: How many molds does a shop have?
      Molds: Innovation
      Mold changeover: Saving time and money
      How molds work
    • Labor: Apprenticeships may provide answer
      Internships: Solving the skills gap in-house
      College training, programs
      Lean Six Sigma: Transforming business operation
  • Events
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Ask the Expert
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
    • 2020 Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Polymer Points Live - April 2021
      Polymer Points Live - February 2021
      Polymer Points Live - January 2021
      Polymer Points Live - December 2020
    • Plastics in Healthcare 2020
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Plastics in Healthcare
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
  • Resin Prices
    • All Resins
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Rankings
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Data Store
  • Directory
  • More+
    • Classifieds
    • Digital Edition
    • Newsletters
    • Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Sponsored By Bandera
      Bandera US was born for the North American market
      Sponsored By Ensign Equipment
      Filling systems customized for any process or budget need
      KraussMaffei
      Sponsored By KraussMaffei
      KraussMaffei retools in US with investment from parent ownership
      Sponsored By Mitsubishi
      Innovative new technology from Mitsubishi Engineering-Plastics Corporation helps reduce emission footprints
    • KraussMaffei
      Sponsored By KraussMaffei
      KraussMaffei Retools in US with investment from Parent Ownership
    • Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Tailored maintenance for injection molding machines and robots
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Improve maintenance efficiency with e-connect.monitor
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Maximum precision for lowest shot weights
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Even more cost effectiveness for small precision parts
    • Shell Polymer
      Sponsored By Shell Polymers
      Food and beverage trends impacting the polymer industry
      Sponsored By Conexiom
      Use Sales Order Automation to free up time for CSRs to focus on customers, not manual entry
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. LSR World - News
April 06, 2018 02:00 AM

Lord's IMB process opens new areas for liquid silicone rubbers, thermoplastics

Bruce Meyer
LSR World
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print
    Bruce Meyer, Rubber && Plastics News
    Ross Zambanini (left) and Christopher Schneider both have been involved in Lord Corp.'s development of its In-Mold Bonding Adhesives for LSRs and thermoplastics.

    Cary, N.C. — Lord Corp. has been bonding rubber to metal and other substrates for more than six decades.

    But bonding liquid silicone rubber and thermoplastics to other substrates wasn't quite so simple. To mate thermoplastics to other substrates, traditionally it had to be accomplished using a fastener or structural adhesive. Or you put a hole through the material and overmolded it.

    These systems come with inherent shortcomings, according to Ross Zambanini, Lord's senior strategy and business development manager. There either isn't a robust covalent bond, or there are stress points at the hole with mechanical fasteners or overmolding. In addition, there are potential leak points across the whole assembly.

    Lord, though, developed its In-Mold Bonding adhesive technology that allows plastic and silicone components to be assembled more like the firm's Chemlok adhesive, rather than the older methods. The firm said its IMB adhesives are non-tacky, polymer-based materials that, when applied to a rigid substrate, provide a structural bond to a thermoplastic or silicone that is formed under heat and pressure. This allows assemblies between plastics, silicones and metals to be made during the molding process.

    The impetus behind IMB, Zambanini said, was that customers wanted to use those material combinations, whether it was for mounts, weatherstripping or personal electronic interfaces. "Having a more predictable manufacturing method that costs less and provides that sort of robustness that we do for Chemlok for a new material combination is something we're really excited about," he said.

    One of the issues for LSR is the short cure time. Lord has bonded heat-cured silicone with Chemlok for decades, but those have a lot longer cure time, Zambanini said. But LSRs cure in a matter of seconds in the mold, so the challenge is having an adhesive that matches those cure kinetics.

    To facilitate further development of LSR in IMB, the Cary-based firm recently launched two new adhesives systems—Lord IMB 3020 and IMB 3030—for bonding addition-cured silicone rubber to a variety of metal and compatible plastic substrates.

    Both two-component adhesives allow for easy application, don't require extreme temperatures for curing, and generate bonds that withstand 85°C at 85 percent relative humidity for 14 days, according to Lord.

    "The bond strength is greater than the silicone being molded and leaves 100 percent rubber on the substrate after peel tests," said Eric Dean, Lord's manager of global business development and marketing strategy.

    Areas of focus

    Lord is looking at personal electronic devices and automotive as the two main places where it believes it can gain traction with the IMB for LSRs, Zambanini said. For the electronic devices, there already is a lot of demand coming from such applications as smart phones, smart watches, fitness bands and even the plugs used to charge the devices.

    "I have a colleague whose only job is to address the OEM designers," he said. "He goes back and forth to China to work with our manufacturing houses. The reason is they are already using thermoplastic to metal combinations and they just don't know how to provide a robust assembly or a robust seal."

    Some of the LSRs typically are self-bonding, and Zambanini said those usually have poor adhesion. Lord always has prided itself on producing a 100 percent rubber tear with its Chemlok adhesives, where the substrate fails before the adhesive, and he doesn't think it's an unreasonable request when customers expect the same with LSR.

    "But liquid silicone rubber is tricky," he said. "It's a different monster than natural rubber. So we have active programs right now for IMB and other technologies to improve the bonding of LSR to metal, and we've had a lot of success there in the personal electronic device space."

    The second area of focus is in automotive, an area where Lord has a significant presence. The firm has a strong network of early adopters to test new technology, Zambanini said. Looking at something like a gasket seal, some customer might be using a fluoroelastomer, saying they'd like to use an LSR but can't get it to bond.

    "People should be able to use the material combinations they want to use," he said. "It's our job as a company to find the adhesive that allows them to make those things."

    Lord has aimed its automotive effort with IMB on connectors and flow control devices, applications where air or fluid passes through. "If you had it overmolded, you have a leak path," Zambanini said. "Providing that covalent bond eliminates that leak path. We've seen some early success there."

    Rick Ziebell, vice president of technology at R.D. Abbott Co. Inc., one of Lord's original distributors, said the IMB adhesives for LSRs meet all current automotive specifications for fuel and oil sealing. R.D. Abbott also distributes silicones for Dow Performance Silicones, one of the leading producers of LSR materials.

    "Other fluoro adhesive systems generally fall apart either in heat, fuel or steam," Ziebell said. "This particular system is good for all three, and all three are typically needed in automotive applications.

    Working with both Lord and Dow has allowed R.D. Abbott to take the "synergies of our suppliers to build technical platforms that are useful for our customers," he said. "This is taking the best of Lord and Dow Performance Silicones and applying it in a way that's unusual, or unique, and we're showing valuable applications for automotive sealing."

    On the front lines

    Christopher Schneider is Lord's manager of application engineering and technical services for elastomers, adhesives and coatings. He is part of the product development group in Erie, Pa., that makes sure the firm's offerings are application friendly and work properly.

    "We want to make sure our adhesives work in customer-oriented parts and applications, and not strictly R&D type testing. If they don't work for our customers, they won't work for our sales."

    For the new IMB lines for LSR, the group has been working with customers from the OEM to Tier 1 level in automotive, medical and personal device markets.

    "This is something we've had a lot of pull from the customers," Schneider said. "We can bond to steel, we can bond to polycarbonate. We can bond to a number of different substrates with the LSRs."

    Most of his team's work is in the trenches with customers. "If we see a problem with performance, we're right there with the product developers," he said. "We then go back to the chemistry and the chemical labs to re-design and get that fixed."

    With bonding the LSR and thermoplastics to metal, it's not something that's been done before, so Lord has to work to get the word out so the "designers can start looking at these and designing parts that have typically not been done before," he said. "These are for applications that have not even been thought of. You go to the university level and they didn't even realize these adhesives existed."

    Zambanini said being able to bond polymers to substrates opens up new worlds of possibilities, and there's a good bit of education that is needed with regards to the capabilities. And he cautions that the technology isn't meant for every application.

    For example, a kids' play set doesn't need IMB, but connectors for a self-parking car likely would be a good candidate.

    "So part of it's application dependent and part of it is OEM dependent," he said. "Have they solved it a different way? And part of it is it's brand new, and anything brand new that has a functionality people haven't considered before is going to take time to evaluate and adopt."

    In the time that Lord put out the first IMB formulations to bond LSR and thermoplastics to various substrates, they've looked at a number of areas. Some have panned out, while others haven't.

    Zambanini said they looked at consumer durables early on, but with a few exceptions found that nobody cared. It was all about the cost. In that and some other areas, there was a sense of interest, but Lord found the firm wasn't solving a problem.

    "The markets where Lord really excels is where somebody says, 'I want to do that,' " he said. "And whatever comes after that is something they typically can't do."

    With automotive and personal electronics, they found two markets where the firm could make a difference. For instance, he said cell phones are to younger people today what cars were to the 20-year-olds in the 1950s.

    "Who's got the newest, fastest, etc.," Zambanini said. "And people care that they last. Commercials show people dropping phones in water. Why anybody needs to take a picture inside a pool is beyond me, but people want to do that. So having something that assembles and seals that at the same time, that's a huge advantage."

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    logo-pn-color
    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber & Plastics News
    • Urethanes Technology
    • Plastics News China
    • European Rubber Journal
    • Tire Business
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2021. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • What Keeps You Up At Night
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
        • Polymer Points Live
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • FYI Charts
        • Current FYI
      • LSR World
      • Multimedia
        • Videos
        • Galleries
        • Podcasts
      • NPE2021
      • K Show
      • Special Reports
        • CEO Issue
        • Best Places to Work
        • Processor of the Year
        • Rising Stars
        • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • Heavy Metal
      • One Good Resin
      • BRICS and Plastics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Plastics in Healthcare
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
      • Industry Events
      • Livestreams/Webinars
      • Ask the Expert
      • Polymer Points Live
      • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
      • 2020 Caps & Closures Library
      • Plastics in Healthcare Library
      • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Resin Prices
      • All Resins
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Rankings
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Data Store
    • Directory
    • More+
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified
      • Digital Edition
      • Newsletters
      • Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Processor of the Year submissions