Oxford Advanced Surfaces Limited (OAS) says that it has treated 1 million ft2 of composites with an adhesion promoter that replaces sanding or abrasion for surface preparation.
According to the company, by removing abrasion as a surface preparation for composites, its Onto material can help improve quality and reduce processing times by up to 90%. Sanding or abrasion as a surface preparation can be slow and labour intensive, risks damaging parts (over-sanding produces scrap parts) and dirty (all the dust that is removed needs to be extracted and workers need to wear respiration PPE).
Onto can be used in volume manufacturing of composites in all areas of manufacturing and is also easy to use with complex shapes, OAS says.
The material is increasingly used in sectors in including wind energy, aerospace and sporting goods and is enabling manufacturers to deliver large efficiencies.
‘We are well on track to hitting the 1 m square foot milestone and the composites industry is increasingly seeing the advantage of surface preparation without having to sand or other form of abrasion,’ said Terence Warmbier, OAS head of business development.
This story uses material from OAS, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
