New technology patented by Australian plastics engineering company Boss Polymer Technologies P/L securely bonds extruded thermoplastic elastomer profile to single sided pressure sensitive self adhesive tape. The Boss ExWeld system greatly reduces material costs and production time to make specialist extrusions such as high performance weather seals for automotive and other applications.
Boss Managing Director Norman Mills has proven the technology as a cost effective process for applying adhesive tapes to thermo plastic materials, such as Santoprene™, for use in permanent automotive seals. “Typically, weather seals are mounted on a surface using mechanical devices such as pins, grooves, channels, clips, wire carriers and liquid adhesives. In recent years, pressure sensitive adhesive tapes have been adopted to fix extruded seals using costly heat activated tape applied with imported laminating machines,” explained Norman Mills.
“Our patented method delivers significant cost savings because we directly weld the pressure sensitive tape to the elastomer profile as it is extruded. Our test program proves the bond is very strong and significant cost downs are now achievable through the use of standard non-heat activated pressure sensitive adhesive tapes and elimination of mechanical fasteners. This provides both the fabricator and the customer with a wide choice of tape types, ranging from low budget to high performance, to meet the required specifications,” he said.
Following extensive development and testing in the laboratory and in harsh Australian outdoor conditions, the Boss ExWeld system is being applied to automotive seals for aerodynamic body skirts and mouldings, pick up truck cargo space liners and covers, wheel arch flares, rear glass canopy doors and body spacers. Contact Boss Rubber at [email protected] or on Tel: +61 3 9561 2777.