How a special winter adhesive helps you increase productivity and reduce material waste

Winter can be a difficult season for production. The cold weather takes its toll on normal working temperatures in the workshops, and the materials being worked with need extra care to avoid damage. This is the case with aracite, the preferred wood glue. SpidersPVA (polyvinyl acetate or polyvinyl acetate) adhesives are aqueous dispersions, and decreasing temperature can affect the quality of the bond, even to the point of total adhesive compromise when the temperature drops below 0°C. As this is a real problem, manufacturers of such adhesives have continually tried to find solutions to improve their behaviour at low temperatures. This has led to the development of special cold-season adhesives such as TISZABOND D3 WINTER distributed by Szolvegy, Târgu Mureș. How can it help you increase productivity and reduce losses? Here are just some of the answers to that question.

Low fixing temperature eliminates some of the downtime

Every adhesive has a temperature limit below which it cannot work. This is called minimum film forming temperature (MFT) and represents the threshold below which the adhesive no longer makes a continuous film on the wood. After drying, instead of resulting in a continuous, transparent glue line with adhesion to both surfaces, a white, non-adherent, powdery layer will appear and peel off the wood. The temperature at which this phenomenon occurs is called bleaching point and ordinary PVA adhesives is around 5°C. TISZABOND D3 IARNA this temperature is 0°C.

In the bonding process, in addition to the temperature of the adhesive, the following are important ambient and wood temperature. Often the wood to be glued is stored in unheated rooms. If ordinary adhesives are used, the wood should be brought into the workshop in advance and allowed to reach a temperature that will not affect the gluing. Using the special winter glue eliminates this time and gluing can be done immediately, even if the wood is very cold. This is why the glue can also be used in construction, where winter conditions are quite harsh. With the special glue the wood can be glued even if it has been in a totally unheated space.

Using an adhesive that is capable of making safe and very good quality and low temperature bonds saves effective working time and thus increases productivity. Working time will be used more efficiently and the results will be visible at the end of each day.

The freeze resistance of the adhesive leads to less waste and loss

Regular peanuts can no longer be used if they have frozen. Even if the appearance looks normal after thawing, the solder will not be durable. There are spots on the glue line where the adhesive turns to dust after drying, which become vulnerable spots that will crack at the first pressure. It is very risky to use, so if there is any suspicion that the adhesive has frozen, it should be discarded. This leads to losses and problems with waste disposal.

TISZABOND D3 WINTER can also be used if storage and transport conditions have been poor and the adhesive has frozen. Even if the temperature reaches -20°C the adhesive qualities are not affected. It is possible that after thawing its viscosity will increase a little, but it will return to normal after stirring. The adhesive retains its qualities even after 3-4 such freeze-thaw cycles. However, this property should not be abused because at some point the process will become irreversible and even if the adhesive is shaken very vigorously after thawing, its viscosity will not return to normal.

This property is very useful for those who work in areas where winters are very cold. Basically, the glue was created for such a user in Miercurea Ciuc, a city known for its record winter temperatures. On very cold days, when the temperature drops below -20°C, simply unloading the adhesive was a problem. Also, the very low temperatures sometimes made it very difficult to achieve good conditions in the storage rooms and even in the work areas. With the new adhesive these problems have been overcome and adhesive losses have been reduced considerably.

The elasticity of the adhesive protects the blades of calibrating and sanding machines

Another property that helps reduce wastage and production costs is the elasticity of the special winter adhesive. A large quantity of such adhesive is consumed to obtain glued solid wood panels. As a result of the pressure exerted on the strips of timber, the excess adhesive comes out on both sides of the panel, hardening on the surface. At the end of the process, the panels are calibrated and sanded to flatten the surfaces and remove the hardened adhesive.

TISZABOND D3 IARNA forms an elastic, soft film by curing. This gives much less resistance when the panel is calibrated and so the calibration machine blades are less affected and their life is prolonged. Also, as debris is easier to remove, the result is much better quality panels.

Szolvegy's special winter adhesive helps you eliminate some of the problems this season and can make your work simpler and easier. In addition, it is a D3 adhesive that can be used both for gluing products that sit in high humidity environments indoors (bathrooms, kitchens) and outdoors in a moderate climate. It can be used in the manufacture of joinery as well as for structures where at least one of the glued elements is made of wood or wood-based panels (stairs, doors, windows).