Today's high performance products demand high performance adhesives. Thus, assemblers are increasingly turning to multi-component reactive adhesives for improved quality and productivity. These adhesives offer performance properties often not available in single component materials, but there is an added cost in having to meter and mix the reactive components. The metering and mixing functions must be seamlessly integrated into the overall bonding process and made as consistent and automatic as possible. This is often accomplished by modern meter-mix-and-dispense (MMD) equipment.
The demand for multicomponent adhesives such as epoxies, acrylics, and polyurethanes is expected to grow at about 4% per annum during the rest of this decade. Thus, the demand for affordable and functional processing systems will increase as well. There are also many other applications that require the use of MMD equipment including potting, encapsulating, casting, molding, and coating. Many new products utilize heat sensitive substrates, thereby forcing the need for a room temperature curing, reactive adhesive.