As Winter marches on, you might want to keep a close eye on outside temperature. The temperature of both environment and substrate can cause havoc with cure speed when bonding or sealing. For every 8°C drop in temperature, the cure time doubles and likewise for every 8°C increase in temperature, the cure time is halved.

So, what does outside temperature mean for your adhesives?

Apart from significantly decreased or increased cure times, products may be more difficult to extrude, and may not behave as expected. For optimum performance, the substrate and the adhesive should be between 15°C and 25°C. If over or under this range, the product may display different characteristics.

So, how do you ensure that your adhesives perform correctly when the cold sets in?

There is a quick test that can be carried out to ascertain whether the adhesive is curing as it should do – gun out some beads of adhesive onto a sheet of paper, bring into the office (where it’s warmer) and test the open time. This is done by simply touching the surface of the bead at regular intervals to check how long the adhesive takes to skin over. Then compare this with the adhesive’s performance in the colder workshop environments.

There are lots of simple ways to ensure that your adhesive doesn’t catch a chill:

–       Keep it raised off the floor – even a pallet height can make all the difference!
–       Store in a warm/heated environment
–       Keep the heating on overnight
–       Keep roller-shutter doors down as much as possible to avoid too much heat escaping
–       Use foil pack/cartridge warmers – give us a call for pricing.