The science and technology of adhesives has advanced greatly in the past few decades and continues to advance every day. While there are several ways to design and manufacture products, 3M adhesives and tapes offer unique benefits compared to welding and mechanical fastening.
Adhesives and tapes provide a barrier to reduce or prevent bimetallic corrosion that often occurs between different types of metal.
Adhesives can bond hard to bond materials such as low surface energy plastics, oily metal and silicone rubber.
Using adhesives to bond two surfaces helps seal out water, moisture, dirt and other environmental contaminants. Because the seal has adhesive properties, there is no need for a separate mechanical fastener.
Mechanical fastening requires drilling holes, and attachment at each hole concentrates stress at that point. Because adhesives and tapes bond over an area rather than points, they disperse the load over the entire bond area.
Incorporating adhesives and tapes into the manufacturing process can improve efficiency by eliminating process steps, failure rates, and time of assembly. Adhesives and tapes can increase speed, reduce cost, reduce labor hours and streamline operations.
Adhesives provide virtually invisible fastening to keep surfaces smooth and clean with no visible screws, rivet heads or protruding nuts and bolts. Adhesives also save the time and cost of refinishing welding burn marks.
Because adhesives and tapes are viscoelastic, they are energy absorptive and improve the impact, vibration and fatigue performance of your design.