Ideas and advice for sticking tiles to plastic - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: akis
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2019, 09:45:57 pm
content: What you see on the photo isa ceramic tile, poled on one side with a blob of solder in the centrea ceramic tile, the other sidea rectangular piece of 0.5mm polystyrenea similar piece of polystyrene, cut with indentations and 9 of these tiles glued on*****************The polystyrene is there to hold the ceramic tiles togetherWe have cut indentations to allow some movement and flexWe solder leads on the solder blobs sticking out through the holes cut into the polystyreneThe ceramic tiles are glued on with epoxy glue. The glue serves to (a) glue the tile on and (b) insulate the poled side********************This works beautifully, except, and the reason for this post:Regular flexing and/or vibrations unstick the tiles creating tiny gaps between ceramic tile and polystyrene. Liquid then sips into the gap and there are shortages. The idea is to minimise the shortages.I have tried other plastic materials, polypropylene, PetG, PVC - nothing sticks really well and the polystyrene is the least worst.I have tried some other glues, nothing I have tried works equally well on both surfaces.The inherent problem is that polystyrene flexes but ceramic tiles do not. Trying to bind two such different materials and then exposing them to vibrations and flexes ...I was trying to think out of the box. What if I do not use glue at all, but simply varnish the poled side. I would also have to varnish the solder blob and the lead soldered on to it. But how then to secure the tile onto the polystyrene template ? By the lead itself maybe? So the tiles are allowed to flop around but are held in place by the lead, similar to how we stitch shirt buttons on ? If the epoxy/nail varnish/yacht varnish is applied on the poled side, it will never go because nothing would be pulling on it. But if we glue the tile on to the plastic substrate then when it snaps off it also peels away the layer of glue and then the poled side remains exposed.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2019, 10:22:26 pm
content: I think you really should call up Henkel or 3M’s (for example) industrial adhesives departments and talk to an application engineer who can advise you on a suitable adhesive.

author: MosherIV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 11, 2019, 07:09:35 am
content: Have you tried double sided sticky foam pads?Also, forget nails might work (assuming it does not melt the polystyrene).

author: akis
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 11, 2019, 07:26:47 am
content: Talking about foam pads, maybe I can use leather/shoe adhesive, it is very flexible when it cures and weatherproof. Will buy some and test. Do not want to use pads (great idea BTW) because they are thick, my polystyrene is 0.5mm and the ceramic tiles are 2mm, the pad itself is 2mm. But I will buy some pads too to test.Edit: polystyrene is hard to stick anything onto, but the best glue is that found on duct tape, is that related to leather glue at all?

author: not1xor1
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 12, 2019, 04:56:11 pm
content: I recently had to glue polystyrene to various other materials (metals, foam, etc) and among the various products I tested Bostik universal neutral silicon worked the best.Unfortunately I live in Italy and I do not know what is its commercial name in your country.Here it is sold assil-neutro universale.Bostik bisonite might work as well although it is more rigid.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2019, 08:29:15 am
content: Quote from: akis on July 11, 2019, 07:26:47 amNo, it's a type of contact adhesive. Have you tried any contact adhesives?You know there's double-stick tape that isn't foam? There are various kinds of paper-thin ones, but you're just not likely to find them at a regular store. Some you find at art supply stores, others you get from electronics suppliers, where they're sold for things like cellphone repair.Don't mess around with shoe adhesive; it's obviously designed for porous materials and isn't going to work well for your application. Why try to press something into service for something other than its intended purpose, when the glue companies make specific adhesives for every usage scenario you could ever envision, and for all the ones you can't, too? Just because you can't find it at the corner store doesn't mean the perfect glue doesn't exist.Any reason why you wouldn't follow my suggestion to call up one of the big adhesive companies and ask for advice?

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2019, 08:44:18 am
content: Prepare the polystyrene with a thin coat of PVA paint, then you can use a double sided 3M VHB tape to stick them together. The paint will adhere well to the polystyrene, and all other adhesives tend to work well with it as well. Otherwise just a thin film of no more nails adhesive spread thin will work as well.

author: not1xor1
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2019, 01:31:43 pm
content: Quote from: akis on July 11, 2019, 07:26:47 amThere are plenty of products working fine with polystyrene. Cyanoacrylates work particularly well as they partially dissolve it. You can even glue polystyrene parts (not foam type) with various solvents.Hard to stick polymers are PTFE, PP and PE (any density).