SHANGHAI – Henkel has expanded its gasketing technology portfolio with new materials and processes designed to replace rubber gaskets in demanding automotive applications. The company’s latest development is the Loctite 5883 polyacrylate gaskets combined with the new XIP gasketing process. Henkel says it provides its customers with a unique sealing that allows them to dispense high-performance compression gaskets within seconds, directly onto automotive parts.
This new process eliminates the need for solid rubber press-in-place (PIP) gaskets and enables automotive OEMs and tiered suppliers to enhance the performance and reliability of their products while achieving productivity goals and reducing overall costs, according to Henkel. As it stands today, the most commonly used plastic-to-substrate sealing method is the press-in-place (PIP) process, whereby the solid rubber gasket or O-ring is manually applied onto the parts. With this process comes a risk of displacement of the gasket during compression, leading to rework or leakages, Henkel says.
The introduction of the XIP gasket technology, Henkel says, allows the fast, precise and series production-ready dispensing of a liquid gasket directly onto automotive parts, replacing the PIP method. The dispensed liquid material is cured by ultraviolet light within seconds. The output is a uniform solid compression gasket, with a constant height and perfect start and stop points, the company says.
These features are enabled by the volumetric dispensing system offered by the XIP equipment. This reduces the risk of rework and leakages, while improving the productivity and reducing the overall cost by automating the gasketing process and eliminating the inventory as well as the complexity of the PIP solid gaskets. The new Loctite 5883 coupled with the new high-precision XIPG gasketing process marks a milestone in chemical and process development in the automotive industry, according to Henkel, delivering benefits for fast and efficient manufacturing, fuel efficiency and sustainability.
