What are the best grab adhesives?

There are any number of “grab adhesives” available in the market.  Many of them have “GRIP” in the name, but what are the differences and what is the best one to go for?

Broadly speaking, there are three types of grab adhesives; solvent based, water based, and hybrid or MS polymer based.

SOLVENT BASED GRAB ADHESIVES

Solvent based adhesives are the original grab gap filling adhesive used for all kinds of assembly applications in construction, e.g. bonding skirting boards, coving, wall panelling, etc.  These solvent based adhesives are generally based on SBR, and the advantage of them are they skin over and cure very quickly, easy to extrude and have a very high grab.  The down side of them is that they are solvent based so are quite smelly, and the glue line tends to go very brittle over time and often you get delamination months or years later.

WATER BASED GRAB ADHESIVES

Water based adhesives are generally based on acrylic polymers and again are used for all kinds of assembly applications in construction, e.g. bonding skirting boards, coving, wall panelling, etc.  They have a very high grab, are easy to extrude and as long as the substrates are porous and not too cold, they will cure quickly.  The down-side of them is that in cold weather they will take a long time to cure, and they don’t give a great result when bonding non-porous substrates.

HYBRID OR MS POLYMER GRAB ADHESIVES

Based on “modified silicone” or other hybrid technologies, these grab adhesives are relatively new to the market.  Being solvent and water free, they are not as susceptible to cold weather and can cope with bonding a wider range of substrates.  They are permanently flexible so will not go brittle in time and they have a very high grab.  Some are quite difficult to extrude because of their high grab features, but recently high grab versions which are easy to extrude have been developed, e.g. Aro-Seal® 1155.   Clear versions are available as well, e.g. Aro-Seal® 1101, whereas you cannot get clear versions of solvent and water based types.  MS and hybrid polymers can also be used for much more than just assembly applications so they are a far more useful product to have in your toolkit, workshop or production line.

CONCLUSION

Although solvent and water based grab adhesives have their place, the new technology of MS or hybrid polymers (insert link to what are ms adhesives) give all the benefits and more that you get from the traditional types but without none of the disadvantages.  Ureka have many of these kinds of products in their range including Aro-Seal® 1155 and Aro-Seal® 1101.

For more information please contact us on 0117 971 1364 or email us on sales@thenamethatsticks.com.