Cowboys a problem in adhesive industry
Eurobond has set out to tackle the growing problem of 'cowboy' suppliers, as they offer customers a sub-standard product and poor service, which increasingly is leaving a wake of disgruntled and out-of-pocket sign-makers.
Thursday, 29 Jun 2017 17:07 GMT
Eurobond Clear Fix is a high modulus glue that moves with the different thermal coefficient expansion rates of the substrates used in signs
Simon Dearing, managing director of Eurobond, feels that this is a mess that must be cleaned up. He comments: “There are many glue suppliers out there, that are, what we call, box shifters. They just shift boxes of glue. They are not technical people, they don’t know about the glue they’re selling, they don’t know its chemistry, about how it works, or what really makes it work.”
“Sign-makers need to work in partnership with their adhesive companies. You shouldn’t be talking to any adhesives company if they don’t know the answers to your questions.
“There are a lot of cowboys out there that are just selling glue, and they think that because it’s a fast glue, its suitable, 100 percent of the time, that is not the case. It’s matching the performance of the adhesive to the requirement of the sign, which is absolutely key to anything working.”
Dearing also explains that because a sign is created out of different substrates, sign-makers require a glue that has a specific chemical makeup for the product to work. Due to the different temperatures in which signs have to face, they need a specific glue that will move with the expansion of the materials.
Sign-makers need to work in partnership with their adhesive companies”
Plastic, wood, and metal has a different thermal coefficient expansion rate, and this means the sign requires specific factors or glue that will allow the parts to move together without failing.
The signs need a specific glue, like Eurobond Clear Fix, which is a high modulus adhesive. Dearing explains: “[This] basically means that it’s a flexible adhesive that’s dimensionally stable. It will move in any direction, equally without stress, and it will maintain its cohesiveness.
“An adhesive has two main properties. It has adhesion, its ability to stick to something molecularly, and it has cohesion, its ability to stick to itself. But at a given point, when the force is too great, either the adhesive will fail, or the cohesive will fail, or in other words, the adhesive will split.”
Dearing also stresses the importance of the sign-maker knowing what product to use when joining together different substrates. He also notes that the adhesive supplier should know the values that go with different materials, and factors such as wind loading, which will affect signs.
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