Today CENTRO SVILUPPO MATERIALI S.P.A. is strongly involved on developing sophisticated technological solutions addressed to have both new organic and hot dip coated products, and hybrid panels obtained through the application of top adhesive technologies .
With respect to the adhesive joining capability, the global adhesive market currently exceeds 16.000 M€, with applicative fields including electronic, automotive, construction, packaging , aeronautic, medicine, with a product offer in a range of broad properties and chemical compositions (i.e. epoxies, acrylics, silicone, thermoplastics or thermosetting,) curable at room temperature or treated with radiation or heat.
The expansion of the market, which is expected to occur in the near future, will be driven by such factors as the new production technologies (e.g. the expansion of new design concepts, the use of pre-finished materials like pre-coated steel in automotive or domestic appliances...), the request for better adhesive performances (for instance, to be obtained by means of nanotechnologies) and the development of new products/applications (e.g. the realization of special multilayer composite panels).
Some improvements are necessary in order to permit adhesive technologies to expand into specific applicative sectors. The main ones are:
- -reduction of the joining time for applications requiring high production rates;
- -improvement of the design criteria and performance tests to allow a reliable prediction of the lifetime of adhesive bonded junctions;
- -development of products with specific enhanced performances (e.g. temperature and fire resistant adhesives).
CSM is traditionally involved in the technological aspects related to the use of adhesives in the following sectors:
- -evaluation of the junction lifetime under multiple environmental and mechanical stresses;
- -development of fast assembly cycles;
- -process development of multi-layered composite panels (structural, vibration damping,etc).