2024
Home Appliances
LESS WASTE. LESS WORK. MORE SAVINGS.
Discover how Sika’s foaming hot melts are improving efficiency to move home appliance assembly forward.
Improve material efficiency and insulation. Reduce cycle times. And lower total costs by as much as 50% compared to conventional adhesive tape solutions. From top lid and display bonding to seam sealing, SikaMelt® foaming hot melts are helping leading home appliance manufacturers make the shift toward more cost-efficient assembly solutions. Together with manufacturers, integrators and dispensing equipment suppliers, Sika is working every day to tailor these systems to each customers’ process requirements, creating more value as we move their businesses forward.
As a bonding technology, foaming hot melts are not new. Infact, Sika has decades of experience applying them to both semi-manual and fully automated assembly applications in the automotive sector. Over the years the company has applied this experience to the home appliance industry, where a wide range of SikaMelt® products are now available that maintain the high cohesion and mechanical integrity necessary during the processing of washing, drying, cooking and cooling appliances.
Why Foamable Hotmelts?
Today, low-performance hotmelt adhesives, tapes and mastics are commonly used to quickly attach decorative panels, touchscreens, covers and other components to various appliances. However, these methods are not very effective in terms of sealing, processability or cost. This is why Sika has introduced a foamable SikaMelt® hotmelt adhesive technology. Designed to be applied in foam beads or sprayed directly onto the components, the technology makes it possible to reduce labor and waste while delivering significant cost savings.
Easy Application
Depending on the number of tapes per unit and the required line speed, the effort of developing automated tape application equipment can be prohibitive. Liquid hot melt adhesives, by contrast, can be easily applied with semi- or fully automated equipment, or seamlessly integrated into robotic dispensing lines.
Flexible Repositioning
Hot melt adhesives allow the freedom to reposition assembled parts within the open time, which is not possible after assembly with adhesive tapes.
Less Waste
As tens of millions of appliances are assembled every year, it’s easy to imagine the amount of wasted release paper produced from adhesive tape systems. Hot melt adhesives are delivered 100% solid and require no solvent or release paper. When foamed, they can enable additional material savings over non-foamed polyurethane hot melts.
Unmatched Design Freedom
Because they can be applied in any bead shape and on any substrate geometry, liquid hot melts offer unparalleled design freedom.
Seamless Aesthetics
Whereas tape film and its carrier are often visible along the edge of assembled components, a thin-film application of hot melt adhesive leaves no visible bond line on the appliance’s edges or on the interface between substrate layers. For brands careful to maintain premium build quality and design aesthetics, the difference is clearly visible.
A Versatile Range of Options
As a leading global supplier of solutions for sealing, bonding and thermal acoustic dampers, Sika has developed a wide range of hot melt systems for appliance assembly applications.
Seam Sealing and Bonding
For seam sealing and bonding of refrigerator cabinets, SikaMelt®-173 achieves excellent sealing, optimal insulation and leakage prevention, all within a fast-setting lean assembly process that can be foamed up to 70% to further reduce unit costs.
Top Lid Panel Bonding
For top lid panel bonding on washing machines, SikaMelt®-172 offers best-in-class EHS and sustainability ratings. In terms of performance, it ensures good adhesion to glass and plastic frames, together with high initial strength and fast curing for even the shortest assembly cycles.
Low-emission Top Lid Panel Bonding
And when fast production processes are required for top panel bonding in washers and dryers, SikaMelt®-877 offers a long open time and high green strength, along with low-emission, classification-free MDI to meet strict worker health and safety standards.
A Technical and Commercial Partner for the Future
Whichever hot melt system you choose, Sika is there to guide the way from selection and testing to certification, implementation and process optimization. Our internal system engineering and implementation experts work closely with every customer’s local teams to ensure seamless knowledge transfer and support from leading integrators and dispensing equipment suppliers.
In the continuous effort to accelerate cycle times, reduce per-unit costs and improve the efficiency and sustainability of home appliance assembly, Sika welcomes all forward thinking manufacturers to join us in our journey. Together, we can develop a new generation of innovative, tailored solutions for sealing, bonding and thermal acoustic bonding that move your business forward.
How can we help move your business forward?
Sika Home Appliance partner services include:
- Construction consultancy: Review of existing systems for suitability for bonding and advice for system amendments
- Functional testing: Support with prototyping, functional tests, system compatibility, adhesion and functional features
- Application technology selection: Active consulting to select application and bonding technologies, systems and equipment engineering, and support for equipment application processes
- Applicator training: Preparation of operation manuals for compliance, together with customer service
- External approvals: Best practice sample preparation
Sika home appliance solutions:
- Main top 4 producers trust Sika to increase durability on new design 20+ years supplying technical solutions for acoustic deadening, sealing and bonding to the home appliances industry
- > 4 million refrigerators bonded annually with SikaMelt® and Sikaflex® adhesives
- > 13 million dishwashers a year are quieter thanks to SikaDamp® acoustic pads
- > 10 washing machines bonded with Sikaflex® 50% cost reduction with SikaMelt®