The factor that most workplaces will consider first is cost, and hot melt adhesives are some of the cheapest on the market. The savings over time, if you are looking to use a lot amount of these glues, can be substantial. If by any means the products or items that you are looking to adhere will be coming in contact with water or moisture, hot melt adhesives are the best bet as it is resistant to water, moisture and humidity. Also, no matter the environment, keep your worries about these glues coming loose at bay.
Now, let’s talk about what are hot melt adhesives made of:
The popularity of hot melt adhesives among manufacturers can largely be attributed to their versatility, good cost in use, and water and moisture resistance. The adhesives are thermoplastic (a material that becomes softer when heated and hard when cooled), 100 percent solid and contain no solvents or water. HMAs are made up of three main elements, namely polymer, which gives these adhesives the primary mechanical properties, and provides strength and flexibility; resins that impart wetting and adhesion properties; and lastly, plasticizer, which controls the viscosity and makes it easy to be applied.
The biggest advantage of hot melt adhesives over traditional glues is the fact that the latter can take several minutes to dry, and you might even have to hold on to the item to keep both the surfaces together as the glue dries, whereas in case of hot melt adhesives, the drying time is reduced to seconds, thus leading to higher productivity on your part.
Things to take into account when applying hot melt adhesives:
Factors like temperature, add-on level (the amount of adhesive you use on a given application), compression (the amount of pressure you apply to laminate the substrates), open time (has an impact on the adhesive temperature and wet-out), and substrates (the texture of the substrate and its chemistry affect adhesive bonding), impact adhesive performance and must be considered when applying.
Learn some benefits to using hot melt adhesives:
Hot melt adhesives have a range of applications, with some popular applications for HMAs being in the packaging industry to close the flaps of corrugated boxes and paperboard cartons, in the bookbinding industry for spine gluing, in the woodworking industry to profile-wrap, assemble product and laminate applications, and also used by many electronic device manufacturers to affix parts and wires, or to secure, insulate, and protect components of devices.
Aside from their versatility, HMAs offer other benefits as well, including long shelf life, elimination of the curing or drying step, disposable without specific precautions, no loss of thickness when solidifying, little to no VOCs, and lower shipping costs and greater transportation distances.
The high popularity of HMAs in industrial applications as an alternative to water-based adhesives can be attributed to the following:
Flexibility- HMAs offer increased flexibility in areas like “open time”, where the working time for it to make a bond varies between seconds for fast-setting HMAs, to infinity for pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSAs).
Versatility- The versatility HMAs offer in the range of different substrates that they can bond with, starting from rubbers, ceramics, metals, to paper, plastics, glass and wood, is one of its biggest advantages.
Variety- Lay your hands on industrial HMAs that are available in a variety of different types, including larger sticks and glue guns with higher melting rates, as well as in granular or power hot melt blocks for bulk melt processors.
Remember, HMAs may not always be the best option, we are talking about its use on substrates that are sensitive to higher temperatures, as well as end-products that can be exposed to higher temperatures, chemicals, or weather conditions where the adhesive may provide less bond strength or resistance.