Under constant pressure to improve manufacturing processes, manufacturers face the challenge of selecting from an array of sealing technologies. In addition to traditional adhesive tapes and liquid sealants, manufacturers can now choose among a new generation of hot melt sealants, which promise to improve performance and adhesion to substrates while reducing manufacturing time, material and labor costs.
Hot melts are fast-drying, nonvolatile sealants applied in a liquefied state to seal glass to its frame. While traditional wet sealants can take eight to 24 hours to set, hot melts typically have hold times between one and five minutes. This increases production speed capacity and decreases process inventory.
In manufacturing, several characteristics and production factors will influence the decision to use a hot melt or not, including sales volume and current manufacturing and automation process. Because the initial equipment investment can be significant, manufacturers already using automated production have lower start-up costs.