OT Plastics Forum?

[TimWilborne]

I have a project where I need to glue two pieces of plastic together. I need to determine what type of plastic to use and how much surface area of bonding will be required to achieve X amount of strength. Does anyone know any resources for information like this. Preferably people who can speak in laymen's terms Thanks TW

[IO_Rack]

We don't bond plastic to plastic, but we do bond many other materials to plastic. Loctite is our source for information and adhesives. They are very aquainted with the major bonding systems on the market as well as inspection methods. We use UV curing adhesive with added fluorescence for vision inspection. We use Fusion Systems for the curing. Edit: Sorry, we do bond plastic to plastic. We use use UV curing Loctite for that as well. Edited January 12, 2007 by IO_Rack

[TimWilborne]

You know last night I was hunting for this and getting no where. I said to myself: My friends at MrPLC have never let me down, someone there will know about this". And sure enough the MrPLC family comes through as usual. Thanks IO_Rack. I'll study the links and will probably be back with questions TW

[TERdON]

Is it an absolute requirement to glue the pieces together? PP, for example, is very easily weldable, so I wouldn't choose glue as my first choice for joining pieces of PP. Actually, at my former workplace, PP would be the first choice, but that's merely because it's one of Sweden's largest user of PP plastic. Other solutions would be PE, PTFE, bakelite, possibly nylon and other specialized plastic materials. Is the main focus cost or some other functional property of the material? The surface area will depend on the plastic type, the glue used, how much force you will apply, and exactly how, geometrically, the pieces are fitted together, so I can't really answer that question right now. Edited January 12, 2007 by TERdON

[TimWilborne]

We welded PE in the past. The problem is their isn't enough surface area so it needed addtional reinforcements for strengh. If it could glue I could 20 times the surface area for bonding compared to welding. Just brainstorming right now

[Clay B.]

I would contact a Lotite Rep. Every time I had to figure that one out I usually just called them up and they were very helpful. Generaly if you know what you want to bond together they can tell you what strength they can make the joint with their compounds. Just one thing to remember some of their stuff requires refrigriation for storage. We use black max for bonding componets to carbon fiber arms and if you let it sit at room tempature for a couple of weeks it starts to break down and is not as strong. Nothing like watching a robot's arms fall apart as it moves.

[TimWilborne]

Thanks Clay. I think that's going to be my best bet