Rubber Substrate

Conventional coatings adhere to materials by simple mechanical forces that will not  be easily broken. This is not the case with chemical grafting since the attachment of the treatment is accomplished by forming a covalent bond between the substrate and the monomers via the substrate activator. The chemical reaction that takes place provides subsurface penetration in addition to the chemical bond. As a result, much thinner coatings can be obtained while providing longer life and superior performance of the material, without sacrificing flexibility or elasticity. 

Typical application methods can be used such as dip, spray, roll. The chemical grafting reaction occurs instantaneously upon contact with the material. The desired thickness and preferred application method will determine the viscosity of the formulation. Most formulations are water-based. The coatings can be air dried, however, heat  (oven, IR, UV, etc.) may be used to accelerate the drying time. Most formulations will dry in seconds to minutes. ​

​

Sometimes two or more layers of  rubber or various materials are laminated together to achieve desired characteristics. A generic adhesive used for all purpose applications will fail especially when temperature changes occur.  These conventional adhesives hold their substrates together by mechanical means. In addition, failure of the bond will occur during temperature fluctuations due to differences in coefficients of thermal expansion. The adhesives developed by  APS  use  difunctional  monomers and attach themselves to the substrates by a  helical bond. This helix allows the resultant bond to move with the differences in the expansion and contraction rates of the rubber. Even substrates that are typically difficult to bond are activated and attached by these means.