Optimized adhesive application

In the manufacturing industry, the process of applying adhesive to join two substrates can be challenging. Itrequires precise placement of adhesive so that it is distributed in the desired pattern, ensuring a strong bondbetween the substrates. Overfilling is a common practice to ensure that the bond is not underfilled after thesubstrates are pressed together. However, this approach leads to unnecessary adhesive waste and can resultin additional cleaning work. To address these issues, an optimization algorithm has been developed that cancompute an initial adhesive pattern to flow into any desired geometry. The algorithm is based on a transientsqueeze flow simulation, which iteratively removes fluid material as it flows out of the target bond domain.For example, to obtain a square bond geometry after a parallel squeezing process, the adhesive needs to beinitially applied in a star shape. However, the algorithm is highly adaptable and can be used for many desiredbond geometries as shown in this paper. The results are independent of the mesh resolution and fluid flowlaw, thus eliminating the need for complex rheological fluid characterization. The algorithm requires onlytwo input parameters, namely the target bond geometry and the degree of compression. This highly simplifiesthe adaption of the proposed optimization method for manufacturers, and their design requirements can beconsidered with ease. The results are reliable and consistent despite the simulation’s complexity. Overall, thisnew optimization methodology represents a significant advance in adhesive application technology, eliminatingthe need of overfilling and thus making the manufacturing process more efficient, sustainable and cost-effective.