8.2.6 Hardening / Curing
- Heed the required conditions (temperature, humidity, radiation of a certain wavelength, etc) and curing times (handstrength, final strength)
- Avoid mechanical loads of any kind (until at least reaching handstrength)
For hot curing:
- Ensure there is uniform heating of the adhesive film (in some cases very slow heating is required)
- Keep in the oven sufficiently long (take into account the time to heat up the substrates, positioning devices, etc.)
- Ensure there is uniform cooling of the adhesive film (avoid stress which could lead to damage to the component)
Filled adhesives:
Fillers are added to adhesives to introduce various properties (e. g. strength). In particular for low viscosity filled adhesives, it is important to ensure that there is a uniform distribution of the fillers before processing the adhesive. In general it suffices to stir or mix the adhesive to achieve this. This should be done without the input of notable force, and this is particularly so for dispersion adhesives. The mixing in of air must also be avoided. Depending on the adhesive and application, the adhesive may have to be degassed later in a vacuum.
Depending on the adhesive, various points must be heeded when processing the adhesive. These are described in Section “4) Adhesive Selection” for the different types of adhesives.
