Advanced Attachment Technology for Automotive Assembly

High-performance, reliable attachment technology is essential in automotive assembly, particularly when attaching nameplates, emblems, wheel weights, or body side moldings to the vehicle’s exterior.

Norbond® attachment tapes from Saint-Gobain® comprise an elastomeric foam core and a durable pressure-sensitive acrylic adhesive. They have been designed to ensure durable, long-lasting adhesion and unmatched resistance to diverse environmental conditions.

Norbond Tapes can accommodate the evolving demands of modern automotive applications, from streamlining assembly processes to enhancing structural integrity and ensuring a lasting bond.

Ongoing demand has prompted Saint-Gobain to expand its product portfolio, designed to offer unparalleled performance in automotive assembly.

This article summarizes the latest innovative tape products (Norbond Z3000/Z3100, Norbond F500, and Norseal® AST) and highlights their advantages in challenging automotive and transportation applications.

Advanced Attachment Technology for Automotive Assembly

Image Credit: Saint-Gobain Tape Solutions

Primerless Bonding and One Adhesive Tape

The Norbond Z3000/Z3100 series represents a robust adhesive solution for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and Tiers looking to manufacture durable production parts while maintaining speed, throughput, cost-effectiveness, and first-rate health and safety.

Since their launch in 2023 Q4, these tapes have revolutionized several applications, including wheel flares, spoilers, body side molding, and rocker panels. Norbond Z3100 is available in the Americas, while Norbond Z3000 is available throughout Europe.

Their design offers superior attachment of low surface energy substrates to OEM clear coats. They adhere to key specifications like VWTL52018E and GMW15201 and combine all the benefits of primerless bonding into one adhesive tape.

These tapes do not necessitate pre-treatment of surfaces with adhesion promoters, saving the manufacturer time and money. Removing the need for primers also enables simpler processes and reduced solvent usage, improving worker health and safety and offering numerous environmental benefits.

Z3000 and Z3100 boast superior adhesion to PP-EPDM, automotive paint systems, or MSE plastics like ASA and ABS. They also offer excellent peel strength with improved short-term adhesion build, high humidity, aging resistance, and reliable holding power at temperatures up to 80 °C.

Advanced Attachment Technology for Automotive Assembly

Image Credit: Saint-Gobain Tape Solutions

Norbond F500 Series Bonding Tape

A core challenge design engineers face is selecting quality bonding solutions that can withstand different design complexities while offering robust adhesion performance on contemporary paint systems. This is especially challenging when working with many of today’s clear-coat paint finishes.

Design engineers must find materials that can accommodate challenging OEM specifications, such as Ford Spec WSS-M11P65-A.

Norbond F500 features a durable black closed-cell polyurethane foam and a high-performance acrylic adhesive system.

The F500 tape offers a powerful blend of durability, long working life, and robust weather resistance, making it ideally suited for the permanent attachment of exterior automotive emblems, nameplates, and badges.

This tape has been extensively tested and validated to meet stringent OEM specifications like those used by the Ford Motor Company. F500 offers the shear, peel, and tensile adhesion capabilities necessary to meet the requirements of these challenging applications.

F500 can eliminate contact between dissimilar materials, prevent corrosion, minimize distortion, and distribute stress to reduce pressure points and ensure a strong, long-lasting, durable bond.

The tape’s high-performing, conformable closed-cell polyurethane foam allows it to be die-cut using a standard polyethylene liner, excelling in automated production processes.

Conformable Acrylic Sealing Tape with Permanent Ionomeric Film Backing

Problematic applications such as adhesion to raw or painted metals, sealing different textures or part geometries, or delivering instant sealing require powerful acrylic adhesives. Norseal AST Foam represents an ideal solution to these application challenges.

This high-performance modified acrylic tape features a permanent ionomeric film designed to overlap joints or seams in numerous applications, such as trailer or truck sealing. AST’s permanent ionomeric film provides an environmentally stable, paintable surface, and its distinct properties ensure durable and long-term performance.

AST provides instant sealing upon application over a seam. Its conformable acrylic core allows the tape to conform and seal various textures, including metals.

Norseal Sealing Foams such as Norseal AST have been designed to seal against dirt, water, and air. The foams’ use of aggressive adhesive means that no special tools are required for their application, and no curing is necessary; application is rapid, accurate, and efficient.

Selecting the Right Attachment Product

Choosing the right automotive bonding and sealing product depends on each application’s needs.

Body-side molding applications typically require tapes offering flexibility and good peel resistance. This application would benefit from an acrylic tape like Z3000/3100 because it can withstand high-stress conditions and excellent peel adhesion to automotive paint systems.

Nameplate or emblem attachment applications necessitate materials that can be die-cut while simultaneously offering good conformability, providing good shear, and ensuring robust tensile adhesion for stress resistance. These materials must also accommodate specific aesthetic requirements. Polyurethane foam tapes like F500 work well here.

Applications where sealing against environmental elements is key require using materials that offer aggressive adhesion, durability, and long-term performance, even when exposed to challenging use settings. Norseal Sealing Foams like AST are ideal for this application.

Saint-Gobain’s team is available to review specific application requirements and advise on a product to meet these needs. The company can even work with its customers to co-develop a new product.

Acknowledgments

Produced from materials originally authored by Maggie Bieniek from Saint-Gobain Tape Solutions.

Innovations in Sustainable Power Distribution

This information has been sourced, reviewed, and adapted from materials provided by Saint-Gobain Tape Solutions.

For more information on this source, please visit Saint-Gobain Tape Solutions.

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