Description

Technically speaking, the molding process with hotmelt adhesives is a halfway house between injection molding and casting. This process greatly simplifies the production of injection molding, the potting of plug connections with simultaneous sealing and strain relief, and the enclosure of electronic components like in assembled printed circuit boards. Complex and time-consuming processes can now be replaced with a technically efficient and cost-effective method.

In automotive engineering, hotmelts have been state of the art for watertight plug connections for several years. And now hotmelt adhesives are also increasingly making inroads in those areas where assembled printed circuit boards have to be protected from moisture, mechanical damage or aggressive environment.

The reason for this is the low pressures applied and hence gentle treatment of the component. This yields the following advantages over 2-component molding (PU or epoxy):

• The enclosed component can be further-processed after only about a minute, thus bypassing the time-consuming curing of the 2 part molding compound.
• Simple and clean process using single-component materials based on renewable raw materials.
• The printed circuit board enclosure can serve as a housing in many cases.