According to inventor David Adams, the Induction Cure System (patent pending) completely eliminates the distortion of plastic substrates to which thermal adhesives have been applied in traditional thermal-cure processes. Adams claims that his adhesive formula - a mixture of two known products - quickens the curing process while generating uniform levels of heat for optimum results.
"A lot of manufacturers are looking for this," Adams says, "but the material suppliers don't supply this material at the moment."
The idea for the Induction Cure System came to Adams, a mechanical engineer, after observing the induction-based process currently used by American automobile manufacturers to cure hemming adhesive on the outer edges of car doors. Instead of placing the plastic panels that comprise a car's interior into an oven, Adams reasoned that an effective, non-warping cure could be achieved by dispensing two previously unmixed products and targeting the joined surfaces with standard induction coils.
"If you wanted to bond a whole vehicle," Adams explains, "you'd have almost a skeleton of copper piping; that's what you'd use for your coil. And then the panel would come into place, you'd hit it with the heat, and that would heat the material up almost instantaneously."
Though well suited to the auto industry, the Induction Cure System may be applied to small plastic components, boats, aircraft, medical devices and aquariums, among other things. The applications are virtually limitless because of the interchangeability of the adhesive mixture agents.
"You could take probably 95% of all thermally cured materials that are out there at this time, modify them, and you could use them in this process," Adams says. "I sat down one day, and, just going through the different variables, there were over 200 products. I gave up at over 200 products."
The Induction Cure System is available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, call (412) 288-1300 ext. 1368.
