Adhesives capable of bonding structural components and subsystems are a key enabler for automotive OEMs to achieve emissions reductions. This is because they have unrivalled potential to simplify introduction of new lightweight composite and advanced metal materials into these safety-critical applications.

However, most current structural adhesives are elastomer-based epoxy resins, which are applied in liquid form using 6-axis robots. These adhesives typically have long curing times, during which components must be securely clamped in jigs because the adhesive can still flow until the cure is complete. As well as high production cell Capex, the process footprint and corresponding real estate cost to adopt these existing processes at scale restricts the realisation of wider automotive lightweighting strategies across OEMs of all sizes.

Consequently, new structural adhesive films and tapes are gaining significant OEM traction, as they address the fundamental challenges of liquid adhesive application, pre-cure flow and curing times. However, few provide sufficient shear strength for application in the most demanding structural applications. Critically, the requirement for costly clamps and jigs also remains, due to these films and tapes also lacking:

* Tack: to resist separation after initial contact
* Green strength: to resist adhesive flow and joint deformation, fracture and movement during curing

No existing approach bridges the gap between pressure sensitive adhesives in tape-form and structural adhesives.

In response, Tecman Speciality Materials is developing Dual Action Adhesive Tape (DAAT, registered trademark). Uniquely introducing novel pressure sensitive bonding chemistry into a thermally-activated structural epoxy, DAAT yields:

1. An instant bond on contact, capable of self-supporting structural components and sub-assemblies
2. World-leading post-cure strength

Building on their core R&D and scale-up initiation, TSM now seek to develop and validate a volume-ready continuous manufacturing protocol for DAAT, to realise the exceptional commercial potential in automotive applications.