Bonding a Steel Cannula onto an Opaque PP Hub
“I’m looking for a UV-fixating adhesive to bond a steel cannula onto a polypropylene hub. The hub will be plasma or corona treated prior to gluing to increase the bonding performance and the hub will have annular rings as well. However, since the material is opaque I assume the adhesive has to have a secondary curing mechanism too? In addition to the above, the fixation time for bonding needs to be <10 seconds. Can you please advise which of your adhesives might be suitable?"
On occasion full cure via UV/Visible light can be achieved with opaque PP hubs.
Depending on the color and thickness of the polypropylene, some light from the side can transmit through the plastic and polymerize the UV/VIS adhesive. The largest area of the adhesive is usually cured from the top. However, due to limitations in depth of cure of most UV/VIS adhesives, I would recommend keeping the length/depth of the bond joint to a minimum and mold the annular rings near the top of the hub. Suitable UV/Visible light-curable products are DYMAX 1180-M-SV04 and 1-20777, which are medium viscosity and won’t flow deep inside the hub. Low-viscosity products such as DYMAX 1161-M or 1162-M can be used if the design of the bond joint prevents these materials from flowing too deep inside the hub.
In order to achieve short curing times I would recommend high-intensity UV lamps such as Fusion F300, which is a focused beam lamp or DYMAX BlueWave® 200, which is a spot-lamp that can be equipped with multi-wand lightguides.
