Adhesive To Bond Abs Plastic To Glass

Because of different thermal expansion of ABS vs glass, a hard-setting adhesive would sooner or later exhibit cracking. So you are on the right track to search for an adhesive that retains some flexibility. I'm not sure, but I think some types of epoxy would work well, or maybe a silicone. Not "Super-Glue" though.

EA-9394 from Henkel Corporation. In general ABS and Glass are easier to bond. EA 9394 is a toughened adhesive and it won's crack. Hope it helps

Silicones or flexibalized cyanoacrylates would seem good. They've made huge strides in instant adhesives lately.

With a Shore D hardness of 88, I'd think twice about the 9394.

I am saying EA 9394 is one of the best option and it has flexibility and it will accomodate differential expansion and shrinkage rates. Silicones' adhesion to ABS is questionabble though silicones bond well to Glass. Where did you get that Shore D 88 number? Flexible Cyanoacrylate? What brand? How much flexibility does it have?

You are certainly entitled to your opinion.

The hardness number came from the manufacturers data sheet, and no one who is technically competent would suggest that a material with a hardness of 88D is "flexible".

I did not specify a particular cyanoacrylate, since there are numerous products available that would meet the needs as defined by the OP.

Your suggestion of using ea 9394 is laughable, since you have no idea what the OP is doing, and due to the fact that it is not available at the local Home Depot nor even through distribution, unless you buy in quantity lots. It's a specialized aerospace adhesive and not available to the general public.

Former "Materials Guy"

Flexibility is a relative term. EA 9394 has around ~1.5 to 2.0% elongation. Most importantly it bonds good and has an excellent tear strength, and has good adhesion to substrates mention here- in all directions --in parallel and perpendicular to substrate. Further more--it has durability. I have seen RTVs failing in adhesion when bonded to ABS because of the process additives migrating to the interface. I am not sure if this ABS has any process additives!! Also I am not sure if it is an industrial application or home improvement scenario.

OK, I'm sure it's a fine adhesive.

Something neither of us has discussed is the importance of surface preparation, prior to bonding. The best adhesive in the world will fail if improperly applied.

OP, take care with surface prep, it's very improtant.

I would go with a two part silicone since most one part silicones either require moisture or evolve alcohol or acetic acid. especially if your bondline is thick or does not have access to air easily. Silicone will not crack and if the load bearing is not much then you would be ok. The adhesion of silicones to plastic may require a primer so check out Dow corning or GE silicone adhesivies. Primers are used to acheive better adhesion to hard to bind substrates such as plastics. Silicones should bond well to glass. Hope this helps.

Jack

Hi Jack.

Welcome to the forum.

At the risk of sounding like Mr. Negativity, I'd be cautious in recommending a two part system that requires a primer.

We have no idea if this is someone trying to stick a thermometer on his patio door or someone with a high volume production project in mind. And you are still faced with the problem of purchasing and knowing how to use a specialized adhesive and a primer.

Let's keep it simple.

Well When I hear someone say application I assume that he is not bonding one thermometers to a fish tank or patio door. So a better idea would be let us have more info so we can either recommend the home depot method or if its critical something more elaborate. Depends on the application yes and how important it is, so I assume worse case. But let the originator decide.

Having previously been involved in bonding plastics to themselves and various other materials in a production environment into products that will be sold through various known (and possibly unknown) distribution channels - some of the finer points here are worth consideration -

a) Surface preparation - plastics as molded or formed often end up with a slick surface, and worse coming out of tooling or molds and some processes with a contaminant on the surface previously used as a "release agent". Surface prep could be anything from chemical clean and etch to physical scuffing

b) Glass preparation as well - will any scuffing, sandblasting, chemical etching etc improve the final adhesion?

c) Has a method been given consideration to "stop the propagation" of a separation failure in the adhesive? aka - a line to line application if it starts is likely to continue - where as if the adhesive was applied intermittently, the separation might stop when a gap in the adhesive was encountered - sort of like putting a controlled "burn" in front of a larger approaching fire -

d) structural adhesives do sound like the way to go, with "body" during application so more easily directed, some sort of orientation assurance - to keep the surfaces in alignment during tack and eventual set

In any event - trialing a wide range of options in the range of distribution environments eventually encountered - HOT or FROZEN trucks from point a to point b while in packaging that prevents lateral or crushing forces, is it going get wet? be submerged, exposed to other chemicals etc -

In general then, you should expose the tests to any and all possible failure modes for the appropriate amount of time to determine which will NOT work, and then narrow the listing of successes to those that enable your monetary success -

Just our two cents

Skippy and Buzz

http://skippyandbuzz.blogspot.com/