UV Adhesives and Sealants/ Light Cure Adhesives and Sealants

UV cure adhesives and sealants are available in both epoxy and acrylate formulations, forming strong and reliable bonds when exposed to a light source after application. High transparency and exceptional stability, even in challenging environmental conditions, ensure that they are a reliable choice for manufacturers in applications using plastics, rubbers, ceramics, glass, and metal substrates. Additionally, they are optimally used wherever the precision assembly of components is required thanks to on-demand curing and setting.

Used across a broad range of industries for their fast cure times and efficient application, on-demand curing delivers greater control during manufacturing processes. Additionally, with reliable adhesion and sealing in colorless to near-colorless curing, manufacturers can assemble consumer goods to meet high aesthetic standards as well as meeting various levels of compliance in the medical industry.

A choice of photoinitiators allows you to tailor your UV cure adhesive to materials that only transmit visible light or only transmit UV light. This ensures you can easily bond all types of substrate in any application. It is simply a matter of choosing the right UV adhesive for your purposes.

Light cure adhesives and sealants are selected over other methods of bonding and adhesion for a variety of reasons. Cure times are important in processes that require a high degree of accuracy, such as applications within the medical, optical, and electronics industries. Additionally, any component that requires high stability while retaining flexibility can benefit from the products within the Henkel catalogue. 

For more information on individual products and to discuss your specific requirements and application, contact us today and we will be happy to help.

Types of UV Adhesives/Light Cure Adhesives and Sealants

To choose the right UV adhesive, consider the photoinitiator system in the adhesive: UV-only or UV-plus visible. Then determine transmission characteristics of the substrate. If the substrate transmits visible light but not UV light (that is, is UV opaque), you cannot use a product that contains only a UV photoinitiator; a visible light photoinitiator must be present in the product. If the substrate transmits both UV and visible light, any source will cure a product, although the main concern is speed of cure, which is related to light intensity.

To ensure optimal adhesion in any process, you can choose between UV light curing adhesives and sealants with different characteristics designed to work with various substrates and processes. Both acrylic and silicone UV cure adhesives and sealants work effectively on a broad range of substrates, with each displaying properties to ensure manufacturers have flexibility in any application. In addition to acrylic and silicone UV adhesives, LED curing adhesives are also available, delivering a unique range of properties for manufacturers. This type of adhesive provides an alternative to conventional UV adhesives and sealants where substrates do not transmit in the UV wavelength. Additionally, outstanding optical clarity makes these adhesives an excellent choice within the optical industry.

Henkel works to balance the following features to ensure your specific application is covered regardless of your specific industry:

• High strength
• Excellent stability
• High cure speeds
• On-demand curing
• High viscosity
• High transparency
• High precision

UV/Light Cure Acrylic Adhesives and Sealants

Single component formulations provide solvent-free adhesion while still curing in seconds when exposed to light. In general light cure acrylics are made of three components: the photoinitiator, monomer, and oligomer. Additionally, UV acrylic adhesives and sealants are selected for their highly flexible adhesion properties that maintain reliable adhesion to substrates such as ABS, Acrylic, HDPE (when treated), PP (when treated) and more.

UV/Light Cure Silicone Adhesives and Sealants

Solvent-free silicones that combine ultra-fast curing speeds with excellent temperature resistance, UV cure silicones are available in a range of viscosities to ensure flexibility across a broad range of applications. Additionally, being highly resistant to oxygen, ozone, UV light, aging, weather, and chemicals, it can be relied upon in a range of challenging conditions on a variety of substrates.

LED Curing Adhesives

Offering an alternative to UV cure adhesives, LED curing adhesives do not require mixing and can be cured extremely quickly when exposed to an LED light source. In general, they are also more environmentally friendly and safer to use, while retaining many of the excellent properties of UV cure formulations. In some cases, they can also be used as gap fillers in thicker sections that standard UV cure.

For more information on individual products and to discuss your specific requirements and application, contact us today and we will be happy to help.

Industrial Applications for UV/Light Cure Adhesives and Sealants

UV cure adhesives and sealants are flexible enough to be used across a wide range of industries. However, they are commonly found within components that use plastic and glass substrates. In particular, UV adhesives for glass, in both precision and decorative applications, allow manufacturers to easily bond materials with a high degree of control and in ultra-quick times through the application of the specified UV light range.

Henkel’s UV cure adhesives and sealants are utilized in a number of industrial applications because of their excellent properties, including speed of cure and exceptional stability. These and other benefits have made LOCTITE^® products the UV cure adhesive answer of choice for prominent manufacturers around the world.

UV adhesives and sealants are often found within both the medical and electronics industries, fulfilling a range of functions in manufacturing processes that require superior environmental resistance, wide operating temperature range, low shrinkage, and strong, tack-free finishes. However, they may also be used within industries such as:

• Automotive
• Construction
• Design
• Dentistry
• Printing

Medical Industry

The challenges faced by the medical industry are twofold. First, precision manufacturing processes require accuracy and speed when affixing substrates. Second, meeting high-level standards for compliance in medical facilities of all kinds is paramount. Medical grade UV cure adhesives rise to this challenge by ensuring fast curing and high resistance while also being manufactured to medical grade.

Under the LOCTITE brand, Henkel offers a spectrum of high-performance, light curing medical device UV adhesives, specifically developed for use in the production of medical equipment and items such as syringes, catheters, and blood filters. These UV cure adhesives are tested with the same techniques used in the licensing of medical components and are certified in accordance with the generally accepted global ISO test standard 10993.

Electronics Industry

The continued miniaturization of modern electronics, alongside the predicted growth of automotive electronic systems such as ADAS, means that UV cure adhesives and sealants are perfectly suited to the industry. In particular, electronic displays that require stability and strength alongside excellent environmental resistance can benefit from the targeted application of UV cure adhesives and sealants during manufacturing. Additionally, smaller components such as speakers and microphones in handheld devices that require plastic bonding may also benefit from this type of adhesive, while printed circuit boards in other consumer electronics often rely on some type of light cure adhesion.

Further Resources

For more information on Henkel’s UV adhesives download the respective PDFs for our catalogue of products here. Alternatively, contact us today for more TDS and SDS sheets or to learn more about our specific LOCTITE^® products and how they can enhance your manufacturing processes.