An interesting week for the Glue Guru. This week, he was with a Cork based customer who glues rubber to mild steel in the manufacture rubber coated steel rollers. The customer commonly degreased the mild steel before applying the adhesive. They were using our Z100 degreaser but a change in their purchasing department did also lead to a change in degreasing solvent supplier, in this case, the business went to a motor factors who supplied some Standard Thinners!

Bond failures started to happen almost immediately and the Guru was called in. The problem was simple to diagnose. Standard Thinners are a mixture of solvents which contain water. As the Standard Thinners evaporates, it leaves a microscopic film of water on the mild steel.

This caused three problems:

1. The water causes flash rusting on the mild steel (a common problem with waterbased paints for metals in the 1980’s)

2. The water inhibits the adhesion of the glue to the mild steel.

3. The water reacts with the isocyanate component in the two component polyurethane glue, again reducing the adhesion of the glue to the mild steel.

The solution to the problem……….go back to using Z100. This is a specially formulated cleaning agent which contains a blend of detergents in a water free solvent. It’s degreasing properties are unmatched and it’s biodegradable.

Samples are available upon request.