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Solomon Commericals use ITW Plexus Adhesives to Eliminate Rivets

Solomon Commercials has eliminated the use of mechanical fixings from the design of their refrigerated trucks, giving them a better aesthetic bodywork styling at lower cost.

In order to achieve this, Solomon Commercials - the UK’s leading manufacturer of refrigerated vehicle conversions - invited personnel from ITW Plexus structural adhesives to convince them of the benefits of switching from the use of mechanical fastenings to a process of structural bonding.

Plexus has been providing innovative bonding solutions to vehicle OEM’s for over 20 years and during that period structural adhesives have become a key process solution in many parts of the industry.  However, the use of rivets to fix composite truck sides and other components together is still widespread.  Two of the reasons for this are conservatism, and the common belief that the use of conventional mechanical fastenings is lowest cost.

PROVEN PROCESS
Once the Solomon team was happy to proceed with the principle, full testing of substrates was initially undertaken in Plexus’ comprehensive technical centre. MA320 White structural adhesive was found to give exceptional all-round performance on each of the customer’s painted metal substrates, and its special properties and colour enabled it to double up as a sealant further reducing cost.  What’s more, the chemists agreed a short working time of 10 minutes combined with just 25 to 30 minutes fixture time would offer Solomon considerable time savings in production.

Based on these test results, Solomon undertook small-scale production trials before presenting the new process to its production team.  To begin with the company used MA320 to bond cappings to the vehicles boxes.

INCREASED SPEED - BETTER APPEARANCE – LOWER COST
Mark Solomon, the client company’s managing director told us: “We needed a lot of convincing that we should move away from using mechanical fastenings.  ITW Plexus was very professional in the way it went about discussing our requirements and testing adhesives with our substrates.  The new process which replaced the conventional riveting of the cappings with MA320 structural adhesive increased our production speed, gave better flush appearance to the vehicle, and reduced cost too.  Our team here at Solomon is very happy with the results.”

BULK DISPENSER USED TO BOND MULTIPLE COMPONENTS
Solomon build the entire vehicle in one factory and now use MA320 adhesive to bond other structural components including bonding GRP to itself and GRP to aluminium, as well as to produce door assemblies.  The installation of a bulk dispensing unit has made the bonding process more accurate, easier, quicker and cleaner.

ADDITIONAL BENEFITS
MA320 fills gaps up to 10 mm, acts as an excellent sealant, withstands low temperatures and is offered in white, off white and black to meet most vehicle body manufacturers’ requirements.