Precise robotic dispensing of instant adhesives
The R&D team at Bostik’s Born2Bond engineering adhesives brand has revealed details of a new precision dispensing system at the in-adhesives symposium, which enables the easier use of cyanoacrylate adhesives in high-precision robotic manufacturing to bond automotive and electronics product parts with complex shapes and geometries.
The team presented a new progressive cavity pump, with a dispensing rotor that oscillates between each dose of adhesive applied to prevent rapid curing inside the pump, and a stator made from a mechanically robust polymer that doesn’t absorb, discolour or change any property of the adhesive.
The pump, developed in partnership with ViscoTec, a leading high-precision equipment manufacturer, is suitable for both mono- and bi-compartment dosing systems and is considered far more reliable than existing dispensing systems, even for very narrow beads of glue.
The pump’s improved performance was demonstrated with Bostik’s Born2Bond cyanoacrylates and UV curable cyanoacrylates, including formulated, ‘high viscosity’ or ‘gels’, and even when dispensing beads of 0.3 mm wide or less.
Bostik says that engineers can now be confident cyanoacrylates can be used in progressive cavity pumps on robotic production lines to bond products such as miniature hearing aids, mobile phones, or earbuds full of semiconductors, micro regulators, microphones, microchips, and other electronic components. The oscillating action of the pump, which prevents curing during application, also limits the need for purging of polymerised adhesive, destruction of stators, and ultimately eliminates waste during production.
The ViscoTec Pump System also consists of a three-axis robot with a ViscoTec drive unit and a control unit. During the presentation, the Born2Bond R&D team also revealed that Bostik has developed proprietary software to enable the new system to be used in a wide range of robotic manufacturing systems. Robots are typically used to control the production process’s volume, speed, and accuracy. The new software controls the flow rates and actions of adhesive dispensers, for example, oscillating when in standby and dosing actions. It also translates these complex digital commands into analogue signals for the robots to synchronize their actions with the progressive cavity pump.
Jean-François Chartrel, Born2Bond global market R&D leader says the development of the new progressive cavity pump will open up vast opportunities for manufacturers of electronic components and miniature products requiring high precision, robotic production lines: “It will fill the needs of the manufacturers who are driven by a relentless desire for decreasing size and increasing complexity in their products.
“It will also help engineers increase the accuracy, speed, and reliability of production, ultimately increasing production output and the sustainability of manufacturing processes.”
Visit the Bostik website for more information
