Page 383 - Handbook of Adhesives and Sealants

Adhesive Composition and Formulation 339

Figure 9.7 Thermal conductivity increases as filler loading increases, but loading
is limited by mixture viscosity to a maximum of 40–50% by volume. 20

people to large, multi-national companies. Their commercial formu-
lations are proprietary and consist of many major and minor compo-
nents that have been selected, tested, and field applied to meet specific
applications or problems.
The intelligence behind a formulation is based on the adhesive for-
mulator’s knowledge of many of the principles that are discussed in
this Handbook, knowledge of polymeric materials, and skill at apply-
ing that knowledge to meet a specific need. However, it must be re-
membered that these successful formulations are the results of pos-
sibly hundreds of formulations that didn’t work. Certain formulations
have been developed to work with specific applications; they may not
work as well in another application. Although we like to think that
adhesive technology is a science, it is very much trial and error with
continual adjustment and fine tuning. The prime value of the formu-
lator is the amount of time that he can reduce in the trial and error
period so that one can zero-in on solutions with minimal resources.
Adhesive suppliers are eager to help with an application. Usually,
the more information that they have the easier it will be to choose a
current formulation, make a refinement, or custom formulate a new
adhesive system. Information that the adhesive supplier must know