Henkel and Sonderhoff jointly-presented their filter manufacturing products for the first time at Filtech 2019.
Henkel offers the world’s widest range of adhesives and sealants while Sonderhoff, which has been part of Henkel since 2017, is a system provider for materials, machines and contract manufacturing.
Together they are providing customized solutions from a single source, ranging from technical application consulting and expert training to metalworking, industrial cleaning and surface pre-treatment, through to the bonding and sealing of filters.
Automatic dosing
Sonderhoff presented the advantages of its foamed filter adhesives in the Fermadur range. This adhesive sealant bonds the folded filter pack to the interior of the filter frame and is applied using the Smart-M dosing cell, a fully automatic unit that provides positional accuracy and reliability. Thanks to the foamed cell structure and the resulting lower density, the end-product achieves high efficiencies in filter production and the lower weight is an essential criterion for a simpler parts handling.
“The amount of adhesive per filter can be reduced by up to 50% saving both money and weight, while continuing to meet the requirements for high-quality filter bonding,” says Dominique Tosi, head of application technology at Sonderhoff.
Liquid filtration
Manufacturers of liquid filtration systems using hollow-fiber membranes in the water, food and beverage industries meanwhile face the challenge of having to continually raise the reliability and efficiency of their products. In addition, in view of the increasing global scarcity of water, its consumption and the cleaning and maintenance costs associated with cleaning filtration systems must be kept as low as possible.
Henkel has developed a two-component epoxy adhesive, Loctite EA 9452, which has proven to be very successful in meeting these high requirements in a practical way. The adhesive is characterized by very good acid and alkali resistance when filtering liquid substrates at pH2 to pH12 and adheres very well to the wet fibers of the filters used in the production process. Above all, the product has a high temperature stability of up to 85°C.
“This is a very important feature for cleaning filtration systems,” says Frank Lenz, European business development manager for filtration at Henkel. “It allows the intervals between cleaning cycles to be extended, reducing costs and raising production output.”
Industrial
Efficient adhesives are also indispensable for the manufacture of industrial filters where they are used for the stabilization and final bonding of folded filter media. Here Henkel offers Technomelt AS 5115, a BHT-free hot melt adhesive, which is based on ethyl vinyl acetate. The product is approved to VDI 6022 for use in ventilation and air conditioning systems and is also used for the bonding of clean room filters. Technomelt AS 5115 can be used at up to 100°C and its excellent fungal and bacterial resistance meets ISO 846. This reduces the effort required for cleaning and disinfecting the filter elements and apparatus. Furthermore, the hot melt adhesive melts and sets quickly, and has only limited shrinkage after cooling.
![Figure 1: Differentiation with membranes based on the famous Robeson diagram that plots selectivity vs. permeability. From Reference. [4]](https://www.filtnews.com/wp-content/uploads/IFN_042023_membranes_Figure1-225x125.jpg)
