What are good adhesive to bond rubber/latex and cloth to aluminum?

May 3, 2007 12:46 PM

What are good adhesives to bond rubber/latex and cloth to aluminum?

I'm looking for good clean strong adhesives to bond latex or rubber and cloth to bare aluminum. The rubber/latex and cloth will not need to be bonded to eachother, only to the aluminum. The adhesive will have to endure traffic pulling on the latex/rubber with several pounds of force (~10lbs) over several years. Also, how do I go about finding (and contracting?) a factory or place of assembly to assemble the said materials?

posted by h2 to Shopping (11 answers total)

to answer the specific question, what you want, at least to start on your prototypes, is this to that. more generally though, have you considered if adhesive's really the way you want to go? for something structural and relatively long-term?
posted by whatzit at 12:54 PM on May 3, 2007

This to That can get you set up with items. But it's not really designed for heavy usage, I don't think.

I'd start with someone listed on Thomas Net. You might not find the right person, but if you're lucky, someone who can point you in the right direction.
posted by nita at 1:00 PM on May 3, 2007

polyurethane glues such as PL Premium are really good. They remain somewhat flexible so they don't crack off like epoxies.
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 1:04 PM on May 3, 2007

A lot of it is going to depend on the surface of the aluminum. If it's shiny, I don't think anything is really going to stick to it very well.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 1:43 PM on May 3, 2007

Thank you all. I will experiment with what thistothat.com recommends and PL Premium.

The weight will not directly pull on the rubber. Sorry for the confusion. It will be more like rubbing against it. The visible surface of the aluminum will be brushed. The surface where the rubber will be bonded can be anything it needs to ensure proper curing.
posted by h2 at 2:55 PM on May 3, 2007

Contact cement should work well. It's the stuff that's used to glue laminate counter tops. It comes in two types--the water soluble (few fumes, easier cleanup) and the solvent soluble type that fries your brain cells. The solvent variety is harder to work with, but may be stickier. You may want to sand the aluminum first, for better adhesion. You paint the glue on both surfaces, let both dry (30 min or so), then put them together and run a roller over top. Be very careful not to trap wrinkles; you'll never get them out.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 2:59 PM on May 3, 2007

You could try gorilla glue, it seems to bond various things quite well.
posted by glip at 4:11 PM on May 3, 2007

weapons-grade pandemoniumM says "You may want to sand the aluminum first, for better adhesion."

Actually sanding may be a myth. I once say a message from an adhesion engineer with regards to gluing plastic soda bottles to build water rockets where he said that mirror smooth surfaces bond best. Of course you want throughly clean surfaces, but he said sanding weakens the bond.
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 4:31 PM on May 3, 2007

glip Gorilla Glue is a polyurethane and a good deal more expensive than PL Premium.
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 4:34 PM on May 3, 2007

he said that mirror smooth surfaces bond best

That's possible due to the 'suction cup effect'. If you ask any painter, however, this is a sure way to get peeling much sooner than you'd anticipated. Roughened surfaces give you a good mechanical bond to go with the chemical bond you get when you select the proper adhesive(or paint).
IANACE also IAMAPP
posted by IronLizard at 5:25 PM on May 3, 2007

or IANAPP
posted by IronLizard at 5:26 PM on May 3, 2007