Article

Custom adhesion tests

The choice of a specific pre-treatment product often depends on the bonding to a particular substrate. This is precisely why SABA performs ‘custom’ adhesion tests with the materials that you apply. More than 100 adhesion tests are performed each year for business relations. The advantage of such a test is that it leads to personalized advice for the customers, geared to the application.

Gerrit Leemkuil
Author Gerrit Leemkuil Research & Development

Practical tests

Gerrit Leemkuil, Research & Development assistant and trained European Adhesive Bonder, describes how this works. “The customer request is received via our technical sales staff, often together with materials from the customer. Together with product management, we look specifically at which sealants, adhesives and pre-treatment products will be included in the test. The tests are then conducted at SABA’s Research & Development department at the head office in Dinxperlo. The customer receives an official study report with an overview of all test results and a personal advisory interview.” 

The chosen test method depends on the load to which the seal or the adhesive bond is exposed in practice. Different requirements apply for sealing a biochemical storage tank than for sealing a fire-resistant concrete wall. In addition to the load, specific standards play a role in the testing process, such as CE marking, the Allgemeine bauaufsichtliche Zulassung or the EN standards.

3 tips from Gerrit
FROM CUSTOMER REQUEST TO PERSONAL ADVISORY INTERVIEW

Tip 1

Ensure that the surface is clean. Bonding surfaces must be form-retaining, dry, homogenous and free from grease, oil, dust and loose particles. Use pure and professional cleaning agents for this. Common cleaning agents, such as cleaning spirit, may not be sufficiently pure and are therefore unsuitable for cleaning the surface. Also change your cleaning cloth for a new one regularly to prevent respreading dirt.
 

Tip 2

Sealing is a demanding technology in which the quality control process starts as early as the planning phase. So please take the planning and work sequence into account. Important aspects are the primer’s opening and drying times. To minimize the risk of dust contamination do not wait too long with applying sealant after priming. It is, therefore, also not wise to use primer at the end of the working day and apply sealant the next day.
 

Tip 3

Never dip a clean or dirty paintbrush or cloth directly into the original primer packaging. This makes the risk of primer contamination and degradation extremely high. Pour the required amount of primer into a small tray and throw this away after use. If the primer suddenly has a strange color or becomes cloudy, it is likely that the primer has aged. It is better to throw it away. Close the primer packaging immediately after use and note down the date on which you open a new packaging on its label. Then you know for certain how long you have already used this packaging.
 

More information?

Please contact us at building@saba-adhesives.com or +31 (0)315 - 65 89 99. We would be happy to work with you to find possibilities for optimising your product or production process.