Automotive/Car Panel Manufacturing
The motor vehicle manufacturing industry in the UK is estimated at a value of £54 billion in 2020. As this industry continues to grow with the rise of more innovative and electric vehicles, new products such as adhesives and sealants are becoming more relevant than ever.
A critical stage in automotive manufacturing is panel assembly. Panels make up many essential sections of vehicles, including bumpers, bonnets, wings, doors, roofs, mirrors and windows. Panels are commonly made from aluminium, steel, carbon fibre, glass fibre and SMC composites. As a result, they require resilient and high-performance bonding techniques that are capable of bonding dissimilar substrates. Effective panel bonding leads to stronger, more efficient and lightweight vehicles.
Automotive manufacturing is an extensive process including many other stages, such as body-in-white and performing. Additionally, with the rise of electric vehicles, manufacturers can use adhesives for various vehicle electrification applications, from battery pack assemblies to charging point manufacturing and installation.
Adhesives for Car Panel Bonding
The use of adhesives for vehicle panel bonding offers many advantages as compared to traditional bonding techniques such as welding and rivets. Mainly, adhesive bonding can substantially reduce costs, weight and manufacturing time, allowing manufacturers to accelerate and optimise assembly processes. They are also great ways for manufacturers to reduce CO2 emissions, propelling themselves towards a more sustainable future.
Here we explore our recommended adhesives for automotive panel bonding. Our top brands Huntsman Araldite and DuPont have decades of proven experience in providing elite performance adhesives and sealants for automotive panel bonding.
Huntsman Araldite Panel Adhesives
Araldite 2015-1 is an epoxy-paste adhesive that is ideal for bonding Sheet Moulding Compound (SMC) and Glass Reinforced Plastic (GRP) in car body panels. It can also be used for bonding honeycomb panels. It cures at room temperature, provides great resistance to weathering and gap-filling up to 10mm thickness.
Araldite 2048-1 is an MMA structural adhesive ideal for bonding and repairing metals, composites and thermoplastics in cars and buses. It is fast-setting, provides flexible bonds for use in dynamic environments and gap-filling up to 8mm.
Araldite 2020 is a clear epoxy adhesive designed for glass bonding. It can be used for large industrial composite structures, such as panels within automotive.
Araldite AW 4858 /HW 4858 is a black-coloured epoxy casting system that is ideal for bonding metal, composite and thermoplastics. It offers a long pot life, good moisture resistance and extremely tough and resilient bonds.
DuPont Panel Adhesives
Betaseal 1590 CT is a polyurethane adhesive ideal for bonding windscreen and car windows in the automotive industry. Its exclusive Accelerated Isotropic Network Structure (AINS) provides extraordinary grip and resistance while allowing primerless and non-conductive bonds. Additionally, it is UV-resistant and gap-filling.
Betamate 2810 is a structural adhesive with fast curing at room temperature. Designed to bond composites, carbon fibre, plastics, laminates and paints after pre-treatment. Its high G modulus improves the vehicle’s torsional body stiffened. Betamate technology is used in the earliest stage in body design to make it stiffer, safer, lighter and better crash-resistant.
Betaforce 9050 is a polyurethane adhesive ideal for bonding plastics, composites, painted surfaces and coated metal surfaces within automotive. It offers primerless adhesion to composites, alongside a very high mechanical strength and high elongation at break.
