Glues and adhesives have become an essential part of modern-day living. The range of their use is immense; from post-it notes & envelopes to assembling cars, bookbinding and even in the production of satellites.
However, as useful as they are, the basic ‘sticky’ nature of glues and adhesives means that mixing, delivering and cleaning up after use can be very difficult.
How can we prevent something that is designed to stick by nature, not stick in certain circumstances? This is where our customers benefit from AFT Fluorotec’s expertise and experience.
Non-stick coating solution
We have helped a number of customers over the years by providing them with the latest non-stick and easy clean technologies. The aim of our customers is to get the adhesive and glue mixed and delivered to wherever it is to be used with maximum efficiency. This means the processing time is to be kept to a minimum with the least amount of adhesive scrappage.
One of the biggest cost savings our customers gain by utilising our AFC non-stick coatings is from the huge reduction in cleaning time and therefore downtime.
Whilst the glues/adhesives themselves are extremely sticky, our fluoropolymer coatings are incredibly unreactive.
This characteristic means that AFT’s coatings repel almost all other materials and glues and adhesives won't chemically adhere to a glue tank or container that has been newly coated with a non-stick coating such as AFC 2202. The minimal residue after processing means less waste and what little is left is easily cleaned off.
Refurbishment over repurchasing
Whilst our customers are very pleased with the productivity gains we enable them to have, continued use causes wear & tear means the performance of their glue tanks or production machinery reduces over time.
A before and after example of a glue tank that has been decorated using our AFC 2202 non-stick coating
When this happens, we help our customers by removing the old coating and replacing it with a new one. This is a much lower cost and environmentally friendly ‘refurbish’ option, as opposed to the high-cost approach of buying a new one.
When we refurbish, we start by removing any glue/adhesive that has stuck to the old parts and completely removing what is left of the old non-stick coating in our pyrolysis oven. Once we have removed all traces of the old coating and glue residue, we prepare the surface of the glue tank by carrying out a grit blasting process. this ensures that the surface of the metalwork is roughened to enable the best possible adhesion of the coating, ready for the new coating to be applied.
Once the old coating has been removed, we can then recoat using our AFC2202 coating, providing non-stick and release properties.
RAPID TURNAROUND
Not only do we get equipment into a good-as-new condition, we also provide a rapid turnaround recoat service ensuring minimal downtime of our customers' costly equipment. For example, often our customers will deliver equipment to us mid-afternoon. The old coating and any adhesive residue are removed in our pyrolysis oven overnight. We then have the parts grit blasted in the morning and have it recoated and cured ready for despatch later that day.
