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What are the major benefits of silane adhesives?
VARIOUS STRONG ASSETS A MORE EXTENSIVE LOOK AT THE VARIOUS CATEGORIES Viki Wouters and Jo Indesteege (Kaneka - B) ‘Silane adhesives are now a fully matured product.’ Silane adhesives have done well on the parquet market for many years now. Why are these adhesives so successful and what can they be used for best? Where’s the benefit for parquet floor fitters? We interviewed Viki Wouters and Jo Indesteege from polymer specialist Kaneka to find out more. ‘Silane adhesives aren’t really new anymore,’ Jo laughs. ‘Even though they weren’t available 15 to 20 years ago and everything revolved around hard adhesives, epoxy, and PU. If we go back 15 years in time, for instance, you note that in those days 75% of adhesives in Germany were still solvent-based. The fairly elastic silane modified glues yielded a relatively smooth transition, even though there were still two sides: On the one hand, you had those who advocated elasticity, whilst on the other hand there were those people who insisted that an adhesive had to be “hard” to keep the wood in place.’ Stricter regulations Both interviewees point out that the increasingly strict Chemical/adhesive regulations are indirectly giving silane adhesives a boost. ‘Think here of the legislation on the use of isocyanates on the shop floor and how skin contact and air quality are very strictly regulated,’ Viki replies. ‘Silane adhesives have presented themselves to be an excellent alternative.’ Jo adds: ‘What we do at Kaneka is provide more added value. To sum up, you can say that we go back to somewhat more rigid adhesives, but these are adhesives which aren’t as “rock hard” as in the past. The position is: Either you fix the wood so that it can’t move, as you do with nailing, or you retain the movement of the wood by looking mainly to avoiding the use of harmful products.’ Here Jo Indesteege points out one problem with silane adhesives. The reaction releases methanol. Although, is this really a problem? ‘We certainly shouldn’t exaggerate here. Adhesive producers have carried out tests in Germany to determine how much methanol is actually released and you can say that this is fully under control and meets the various regulations. The products have also been adapted so that the emission is negligible. To make this a little clearer, give me a choice between a room where PU has been used and another room with silane, then I will opt for silane with no hesitation.’ The future? If we consider the future, the question is where parquet adhesives should advance. The answers show amongst other things that hard no longer has to mean ‘rock hard’, but the chief aim is to withstand harmful components as much as possible. ‘Softeners are an absolute culprit,’ says Viki. ‘Softeners are added to make it easier to spread the adhesive, but if those softeners escape or migrate into the parquet floor, the consequences cannot be overlooked.’ ‘That’s why we provide softener-free solutions,’ Jo adds. ‘We advise clients to opt only for softener-free products in case substrates with quite high absorption are used.’ We return briefly to the development of the product and we learn here that there’s no real need to look for innovation in terms of performance, but the cost price does need attention.’ ‘At Kaneka, quality is our top priority,’ Jo says. ‘It’s important to push down the cost price, but not at the expense of everything. Cheap parquet adhesives don’t guarantee quality. An example: MS polymer is also a sort of adhesive binder. If the concentration of the binder in the formulation is too low, the question in the end-product is what actually holds the “system” together. We don’t support that because we opt for quality as our priority.’
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