Adhesives may be an alternative to traditional sign-fabrication hardware.
By Steve Aust
The sign-fabrication process has always been an arduous, time-consuming task. When considering appropriate hardware, numerous factors arise, such as the fixtures’ expansion and contraction coefficients, their interaction with the sign substrate, and the time-consuming process of fastening or riveting hardware in place.
Today, fabricators and installers may use an additional option. Though they aren’t suitable for all applications, engineered adhesives may supplant traditional hardware as the structural-bond media. An adhesive-manufacturer representative, and a sign company that frequently opts for adhesive bonding instead of mechanical fasteners, discuss their potential and limitations.
Background
Scott Miller, whose background emphasized mechanical engineering, serves as marketing manager for Lord Adhesives’ (Cary, NC) industrial assembly and components division. He said his training applies to adhesive engineering because both underscore mechanical strength and understanding material properties.
Although adhesives have been used for approximately 20 years to fasten structural elements, they’ve only recently received widespread adoption.
Richard Sorensen, plant manager for Virginia Beach, VA-based Architectural Graphics Inc. (AGI), also possessed industrial-engineering experience before he joined the sign industry. He said adhesives’ greater efficiency is compelling. “Many improvements have been made with adhesives,” Miller said. “New-generation reformulations have yielded products that can bond more aggressively with the media they adhere, and these materials will cure very quickly and effectively.”
“Using adhesives allows us to eliminate a lot of finishing and assembly work, which saves time,” Sorensen said. “It’s much easier to join sign components and let the adhesive cure than having to grind and refinish.”
Miller echoed, “I don’t have hard-and-fast numbers on the savings adhesives pass on to customers, but, as a rule of thumb, they save 30 to 40% on labor costs. Adhesives also offer aesthetic improvements. With adhesives, fabricators won’t experience the welding burn-through and material warping that can occur with traditional hardware assemblies. The sign industry has been a bit slower than other industries to realize adhesives’ potential for more productivity, but it’s happening more now.”
Miller continued, “Historically, metals posed the most significant challenge to adhesives because of their corrosion potential. Plastics and composite media were more easily joined for that reason.”
Though many adhesive varieties have been used throughout the industry’s history, research and innovations have generated three adhesive classes.
Did you enjoy this article? Click here to subscribe to the magazine.