New moisture-resistant cyanoacrylate adhesive

Adhesives specialist Intertronics announces Bond2Bond Aquafast, a new single-part, ‘instant’ adhesive suited for environments with high humidity.

Aquafast is a low odour, low bloom, medium-viscosity cyanoacrylate (CA) adhesive that offers excellent adhesion to a variety of materials. Its key benefits include the ability to withstand immersion in water after bonding, and its impressive service temperature of up to 120°C.

Once cured, Aquafast forms strong bonds with metals (including aluminium), plastics, and rubbers, and is moisture and water-resistant. The extremely low water absorption rate of 0.8% over 24 hours allows bonds to maintain their strength when submerged in water, most solvents, and oils. It is therefore suitable for applications including electronics and appliances, outdoor lighting, power tools, and interior and exterior automotive aftermarket applications.

The adhesive has a fixture time of 15 seconds, is low blooming, and is translucent when cured, allowing manufacturers to benefit from productivity advantages in applications where visual aesthetics are important. Furthermore, it has a service temperature of between -40 and 120°C, far higher than a typical CA’s recommended maximum operating temperature of 80°C.

“It’s generally thought that cyanoacrylate adhesives have poor moisture, temperature, and humidity resistance,” said Ben Swanson, chief commercial officer of Intertronics. “These historic trade-offs have limited the usage of cyanoacrylates in applications where high temperatures, humidity, and/or moisture are present.

“The Born2Bond range means that manufacturers using cyanoacrylates will no longer have to compromise. Aquafast will greatly broaden the potential uses of cyanoacrylates into applications where water or humidity resistance may have previously hindered their use, meaning more manufacturers can benefit from the rapid curing and strong bonding CAs offer.”

Born2Bond Aquafast has a superior moisture and humidity resistance, showing small reductions in adhesion strength after 1,000 hours in environments with high relative humidity. Its hot strength has also been tested, yielding high adhesion performance in environments up to 120°C.

Intertronics supplies the material in both bottles and bulk containers, so it can be supplied to small- and large-scale production lines.