Windshields – VOC-free bonding of glass

When installing windshields in automotive manufacturing, the ceramic-coated edges of the glass panes have to be bonded with a painted flange area of the metal body. To achieve the necessary adhesion, it has been imperative until now to treat such ceramic-coated glass surfaces with chemical primers. These primers contain easily volatile solvents that are released into the environment during production and, to some degree, also later in the car itself.

Ford Motor Company has succeeded for the first time in replacing this entire wet-chemical pretreatment with an environmentally friendly, VOC-free and fully automated process plasma polymer nano-coating with the PlasmaPlus^® process is an excellent application in the area of adhesive technology.

First, Openair-Plasma® cleaning provides a micro-fine cleaning and, at the same time, high surface activation of the ceramic coating. The PlasmaPlus^® nano-coating selectively applied immediately following the cleaning ensures reliable adhesion of polyurethane (PU) adhesives to the glass-ceramic surface of the windshield.