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125yearsVol. 200 • Issue 2		

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Daily News • Automotive Industries App • ai-online.com

Powering up

BATTERY
innovation

CIRCULAR

manufacturing

process in action

Wireless charging
can accelerate EV adoption

How polyurethane
adhesives support
innovative design

ai-online.com“Sika’s response to the need for technologies for bonding
and sealing in new energy vehicles draws on over 100 yearsof experience and innovation, as well as our vast productrange serving markets around the world.”– Kai Paschkowski, Global Product Manager Assembly, Sika Automotive. Page 68

innovation

Sika’s response to the need for technologies for“bondingand sealing in new energy vehicles draws on over
100 years of experience and innovation, as well as our vast”

product range serving markets around the world.

Polyurethane adhesives
support innovation in vehicle
design and propulsion
By: Tony Davidson

Demand for advanced polyurethane adhesives hasgrown as OEMs turn towards using a mixed assembly oflightweight and composite materials to reduce weight.
One of the industry leaders is Sika, which "offers value-addedinnovations focused on addressing specific customer needs,
such as comfort and safety, while reducing weight, improving fuelefficiency, and lowering emissions," said Soundarya Gowrishankar,
Industry Analyst at Frost & Sullivan in a press release.
"Its solutions for lightweighting can help achieve up to40% weight reduction in the car body in white while saving
400,000 tons of steel each year through SikaPower ®
and SikaSeal ®. Globally, nearly 25 million vehicles
per year are lighter, stronger, and safer due toKai Paschkowski, Global
Product Manager for AssemblyLine and E-Mobility

Sika's BIW products. Additionally, more than
50% of vehicles manufactured each year use Sikaproducts,” she added.
The company’s Purform® adhesives and sealants enhance
the performance of polyurethane solutions for sealing, bonding
and protection, whilst eliminating unwelcome monomericcomponents. This means there is no need for specialized healthand safety training, according to the company.
Sikaflex® and SikaForce® Ultra High Modulus (UHM), one- andtwo-component elastic polyurethane adhesive provides OEMs
with an alternative to spot welding or applying rigid, inflexible
structural adhesives to the body structures. UHM technology
allows engineers to explore innovative uses of lightweight materials,
while complying with crash-resistance and safety regulations.
In 2021, the SikaPower®-550 G Structural Adhesive for automobile
assembly received a Bronze Edison Award. Named after Thomas
2

Alva Edison, the Edison Awards have recognized and honored someof the most innovative new products, services, and business leadersin the world since 1987. SikaPower®-550 G adhesive combines therequirements of three separate Ford material specifications into asingle product which can bond steel and aluminum.
“We thank the organizing committee and the panel of judges for therecognition, as well as our customer Ford for pushing the continued
frontiers in vehicle assembly utilizing advanced structural adhesives.
This award is a validation of the great work our teams perform every
day to solve our customer challenges,” said Greg Moran, VP & HeadSika Automotive Marketing in a media release.
Sika’s eco-friendly direct glazing systems help toimprove vehicle performance and safety, as wellas manufacturing processes and cost reduction, it says. The company’s production-readysystems include pretreatment free systems forceramic and paint, accelerated curing systems such as SikaBooster® technology, andbubble-free systems with its patented i-Cure®
pre-polymer technology.
Sikagard® fire protection coating was developedfor electric battery compartments. The SikaForce®32X TC series range of 2C-PUR products enhances
heat transfer between cells and module cooling plates,
while making array modules stronger and lighter. They offer
thermal conductivity performance from 0.8-2.0 W/m*K, high strengthand excellent adhesion without surface pre-treatment to metals. All
products perform to the UL94-V0 standard, according to Sika.
Automotive Industries (AI) asked Kai Paschkowski,
Global Product Manager Assembly, Sika Automotive
Hamburg, what makes the Purform® range stand out.
Paschkowski: Purform® adhesives and sealants combine
the best mechanical performance with excellent adhesion toa wide range of materials and superior durability even in harshenvironments. Compared to alternative sealant and adhesive
technologies such as silane modified polymers (SMP), silicones,
acrylic dispersions or polysulfides, polyurethanes are better atbalancing the different aspects of specifications and needs.

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The Purform® technology shows that it is possible to combine
performance and sustainability. The ultra-low-monomer content
of monomeric isocyanates shows excellent performance, while
protecting the environment.
AI: What are some of the “green car” technologies thatSika has in its repertoire?
Paschkowski: The electrification of our industry brings
challenges but also benefits to sustainability initiatives andopportunities. Sika’s response to the need for technologies forbonding and sealing in new energy vehicles draws on over 100
years of experience and innovation, as well as our vast productrange serving markets around the world.
Sika has focused on the specific application, substrates, andfunctionality requirements of the material used for assembly, while
adding value in vehicle performance and assembly techniques.
Sika solutions run deep into the heart of components while also
answering the call for specialized assembly and functional needs inthe construction of cooled/heated full battery packs and drive “sleds”.
The SikaBiresin® TC-4XX series is used for thermal conductive
gap filling applications and serves as a functional interface withthe battery arrays. It supports heat transfer (cooling and heating)by actively engaging battery temperature control systems. It isavailable in silicone and silicone-free formulations.
In the future adhesives need to offer additional functionalities.
Bonding with heat conductive adhesives will be more and morecommon as a key target is to reduce the number of components

Sika products for vehicle
assembly join like or mixed materials
throughout the vehicle.

inside the battery to win space for battery cells. The adhesive
must be able to both bond and manage heat transfer.
The closing of the battery pack, also called battery lid sealing isanother core Sika competency. Here, we are also helping to simplify
maintenance operations by providing non-permanent bonding
butyl-based sealing systems from our SikaLastomer® range.
AI: What other products does Sika have for EVbattery packs?
Paschkowski: Sika offers the broadest range of products in
the industry. We continue to develop new bonding solutions thatTO READ THE FULL VERSION OF

overcome challenges such as adhesion to plain metals, plastics
and composites while offering heat and glycol resistant solutions.
Accommodation of the constant delta-alpha effects is solved
when joining multi-materials under cold assembly process
conditions. We have a broad range from which to select. It includes
one-component, two-component and boosted PUR, silicone,STP, MMA, epoxy, hybrids, hot-melts, and PSA. The products
offer flexibility in the manufacturing process and throughput
targets, as well as industry leading properties performance.
AI: What have EV manufacturers had in Sika’s batteryrelated technologies?
Paschkowski: China is the first country to have issued
binding fire protection standards for battery casings. Sikagard®
fire protection coating helps customers to not only to meet, but
to exceed the standard.
Heat builds up in a battery when the cells are generating
a lot of power, are being charged rapidly, or there is shortcircuit. This can result in a fire. The same is true if a battery isdamaged in an accident. Effective fire protection is therefore
hugely important.
Together with Chinese bus manufacturers, Sika developed
a lightweight solution for delaying the spread of fire and toxic
smoke in battery packs for as long as possible, thereby making
electric buses safer. Since 2017, with the large increase of EVbuilds, the Sikagard ® intumescent coatings have been usedin Chinese-made electric cars. Their performance exceeds
China’s regulatory requirements for battery casings.
In addition, batteries and battery pack assembly has hi-techneeds beyond fire-protection/mitigation. It is here that Sikaproducts contribute to “under the lid” performance.
Manufacturers must address sealing and bonding,insulation, heat transfer, glycol resistance,
selective reinforcements in enclosure design
and assembly, flame retardancy andmaintain efficient assembly processes.
There is great interest for Sika
products in this fast paced anddynamic application area. Discussions and design with OEMs
and Tier manufacturers reveal
both similar and uniquely different needs. Our full productrange for e-mobility provides
solutions to the multiple challenges presented.
AI: What are the reasonsfor the recent Sika acquisition ofa Japanese sealant and adhesive
manufacturer?
Paschkowski: Sika has acquired Hamatite,
the adhesives business of The Yokohama Rubber Co. Hamatite
is a market leader in Japan, offering adhesives and sealants tothe automotive and construction industries.
The acquisition will significantly strengthen Sika’s market positionin Japan and North America, increase market access to all major
Japanese OEMs, and notably extend the product offering for sealingand bonding applications in the Japanese construction industry.
The strengths of Hamatite also allow for the further growthof Sika products in multiple markets. Hamatite and Sika are awinning combination.

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3THE
BONDINGTHE BROADEST
BROADEST RANGE OF BONDING
AND SEALINGSEALING SOLUTIONS. PERIOD.
ANDPERIOD.
SIKAOFFERS
OFFERSANANUNMATCHED
UNMATCHEDRANGE
RANGE OFOF INNOVATIVEINNOVATIVE ADHESIVESIKA
ADHESIVE AND
ANDSEALANTSEALANTSOLUTIONSSOLUTIONSFORFORVEHICLE
VEHICLEBODYANDCOMPONENTSTRUCTURE,ACOUSTICPERFORMANCE,AND
INTERIOR/EXTERIORASSEMBLY.
BODY AND COMPONENT STRUCTURE, ACOUSTIC PERFORMANCE, AND INTERIOR/EXTERIOR ASSEMBLY.
SEEFORFORYOURSELFYOURSELFATATSIKAAUTOMOTIVE.COM.
SIKAAUTOMOTIVE.COM.
SEE
SikaPower®
SikaPower®
SikaPower®MBXMBXSikaPower®

High-strengthbonding
bonding forfor crash-durable
crash-durable andHigh-strengthand structural
structuralapplications
applicationson
onconventional
conventionalandandnon-conventional substrates
substrates -- including
including mixed-material
non-conventional
mixed-materialbonding
bonding

Sikaflex®
Sikaflex®
Sikaflex®UHM
UHM
Sikaflex®

High-performance, primerlessprimerless PURPUR adhesives
High-performance,
adhesives forfor bonding
bondingaawide
widevariety
varietyofofsubstrates,
substrates,
includinglightweightand
dissimilarmaterials
including lightweight and dissimilar materials

SikaBaffle®
SikaBaffle®
SikaDamp®
SikaDamp®

Lightweightacoustic
acoustic solutions
solutions inin engineered
engineered parts
Lightweightpartsor
orefficientefficientbulk
bulkapplication
applicationtotoprovide
providecavitysealing
andsoundisolation
incriticalnoisepaths
cavity sealing and sound isolation in critical noise paths

SikaReinforcer®
SikaReinforcer®

Precision-engineered, lightweight, crash and structural reinforcement inserts, integrated
Precision-engineered, lightweight, crash and structural reinforcement inserts, integrated
to create lighter-weight, high-performance structuresto create lighter-weight, high-performance structures

SikaMelt®
SikaMelt®
SikaTherm®
SikaTherm®

Lamination, flocking and assembly adhesives enable attractive, soft feel surfaces while
Lamination, flocking and assembly adhesives enable attractive, soft feel surfaces while
meeting requirements for low emissions, easy application and short cycle times
meeting requirements for low emissions, easy application and short cycle times

LIGHTER | STRONGER | SAFER | QUIETER | GREENER
LIGHTERSTRONGER| SAFER| QUIETERBETTER|VEHICLESSTARTWITH
SIKA | GREENER
BETTER VEHICLES START WITH SIKA