Body Panel and Structural Adhesives
Sika adhesive solutions enable increased freedom to design new commercial vehicles. Bonded structures increase the durability of vehicles and join various materials like metals with composites. They allow different process orders and higher efficiency in body assembly. Sika has been supporting the transportation industry by proving innovative fast and reliable bonding technologies for more than 40 years.
Sika’s global expertise, combined with the local technical service, provides commercial vehicle manufacturers optimal solutions for individual challenges in the industrial production of vehicles.
Sika’s innovative bonding solutions and local support help the transportation industry worldwide to increase vehicle performance and output.
"Sikaflex® polyurethane adhesive technology allows us to assemble front and rear masks to our trains structurally. In combination with SikaBooster®, the moisture-curing adhesive is fast-setting of regardless of joint thickness."
Sika as the Customer’s Strategic Partner for Vehicle Assembly
Sika’s global team provides expertise for standardizing processes to cope with a high variation of materials and components. Sika’s network of experts supports you in assessing design challenges. In the conception phase, as well as by providing customized solutions for optimizing the industrialization. Fast-setting and accelerated adhesives reduce handling time and reach a full cure quickly. In combination with all-in-one sealing and bonding solutions; or by selecting adhesives that require no or little surface preparation; production output can be increased.
Rely on Sika – starting from the conception phase to production, anywhere in the world.
Freedom of Design
Sika's bonding solutions allow joining dissimilar substrates without restrictions. Eliminating the limitations of mechanical fasteners or welding is one of the key reasons why many adhesives are used in industrial manufacturing.
Process Optimization
Sikaflex® silane-terminated polymers (STP) allow the reduction of surface preparation steps. Fast cure Sikaflex® adhesives with SikaBooster® enable shorter handling time and more production output.
Durability of Vehicle
Fully bonded structures with Sikaflex® adhesives reduce stresses in the design. Compared with screws, they avoid damage to the corrosion protection coating and lead to increased durability. Connections with SikaPower® SmartCore adhesives can be more durable than welded joints or mechanical fasteners thanks to its unique fatigue performance.
Vehicle Weight Reduction
Modern vehicle design integrates different materials and lightweight composites with Sika's adhesive technologies. SikaPower® SmartCore adhesives allow lighter vehicles by reducing metal thickness while still meeting strength and durability requirements.
Sika Panel Bonding Product Lines for Industrial Assembly Processes
Sika’s body panel adhesives for use in the production of commercial vehicles allow fully bonded load-bearing structures. Such a design avoids damaging the corrosion protection layer, e.g., by drilling holes or mechanical fixtures. It enables the integration of lightweight composite components and enables assembly of parts at any stage of the process.
Integration of large light weight composite components done with elastic Sikaflex® adhesives, provides optimal solutions to cope with thermal elongation. Many Sikaflex® adhesives can be used in combination with SikaBooster® for accelerated curing.
Sikaflex®-200 Series
Sikaflex®-200 Product Series is synonymous with high-performance moisture curing, one-component polyurethane adhesive, and sealant products. The range offers solutions for all kinds of joining challenges of similar and dissimilar materials. Sikaflex®-200 adhesives are ideal for coping with thermal expansion challenges as present in the design of commercial vehicles. They bond well to a wide range of bonding surfaces. For demanding substrates and high strength requirements, Sika offers a complete range of surface preparation solutions to deliver excellent and lasting bonding strength.
Sikaflex®-500 Series
With the Sikaflex®-500 Product Series Sika offers it's own silane terminated polymer (STP) adhesive technology. Sikaflex®-500 Products are free of isocyanates and bond well to a wide range of bonding surfaces without the need for primers. Sika's STP technology allows the formulation of a unique combination of high strength, primerless, and isocyanate-free products.
Within the SikaForce® range of adhesive solutions; Sika provides specific solutions for bonding a variety of substrates in insulated and dry freight trailer bodies, such as panel joints, profile elements, and reinforcements. These cost-effective solutions are suitable for extensive area bonding and combine good non-sag and gap filling properties. SikaForce® Powerflex adhesives combine high structural strength with permanent elasticity throughout the entire service temperature range.
SikaForce®-7722 Structural Adhesive for Refrigerated Truck Trailer Body Assembly
SikaForce®-7722 is a rigid, thixotropic two component polyurethane adhesive for panel assembly in trailer manufacturing. Different versions offering a variety of open time and curing speed options are available. SikaForce®-7722 bonds well to materials present in the trailer manufacturing industry like profiles and sandwich constructions made of glass fiber reinforced polyester, wood, metal, ceramic substrates, and pre-treated plastic substrates.
SikaForce®Powerflex Series
SikaForce® Powerflex two component polyurethane adhesives combine highest levels of strength with lasting elasticity even at low temperature. With the unique performance characteristics, SikaForce® Powerflex outperforms the state-of-the-art two-component structural adhesives designed to join lightweight materials. SikaForce® Powerflex adhesives create a durable adhesive bond throughout the service life of bonded components no matter what climate conditions they face.
SikaFast® acrylic adhesive systems are a low odor, fast-curing, structural but also flexible adhesives for the replacement of mechanical fixtures such as rivets, screws or welded joints. SikaFast® acrylic technology combines fast strength development with minimal surface preparation for a wide range of bonding surfaces.
SikaFast®-3000 Series Methacrylate Adhesives
With SikaFast®-3000 series, Sika offers structural methacrylate adhesives for various applications such as metal to metal and metal to composite combinations. Replacing mechanical fasteners with flexibilized SikaFast® adhesives when joining dissimilar materials reduces stress peaks. This results in more durable structures.
SikaFast®-5200 Series
The SikaFast®-5200 Series offers several user-friendly, elastified structural acrylic adhesives at different curing speed options. SikaFast®-5200 products are lower in odor than MMA adhesives and adhere to a wide range of bonding substrates with minimal surface preparation.
Bonding metal and thermoset composite parts require high strength solutions. SikaPower® epoxy adhesives with SmartCore Technology are fast setting epoxies with ultimate fatigue performance for high shear strength bonding applications. Sika offers heat-curing 1C and room temperature curing 2C systems for rigidly bonding of metals and composites.
SikaPower®-494 G
SikaPower®-494 G is a one-part, cold-applied, heat-curing structural epoxy adhesive. It can substitute welding in sheet metal assembly work in the body shop. SikaPower®-494 G is suitable for structural bonding of different types of metal. It can be used in combination with spot welding, riveting, clinching, and other mechanical fastening techniques for prefixation. The adhesive contains glass beads of 0.3 mm to ensure an optimal bonding thickness. It can bond to oily substrates (standard anti-corrosion treatment and deep drawing oils, approx. 3 g/m2).
SikaPower®-877
SikaPower®-877 is a structural two-component epoxy adhesive, which cures at room temperature. It is designed for high strength and impact-resistant bonding of metallic substrates, like steel and aluminum, as well as of composite substrates, as glass fiber reinforced and carbon fiber reinforced laminates. The adhesive has excellent non-sag properties and contains glass beads of 0.3 mm to ensure an optimal bonding thickness.