Body-in-White Solutions for Automotive OEM & Tier
A new era in bonding metals and composites.
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By themselves and in conjunction with traditional fastening methods, structural adhesives and tapes from 3M can help boost bond, limit rework, enable design freedom and simplify your processes in automotive body-in-white design and production.
Available in a full range of chemistries and characteristics, 3M adhesives help you make it better, delivering structural strength to body-in-white applications. They also allow for effective isolation between dissimilar materials, and they won’t wash out during e-coat baths. Choose from two-part liquid adhesives and single-layer structural epoxy adhesives in a tape format.
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3M™ Structural Adhesives
in two-part formulations can cure at room temperature, or can be spot-cured by induction for faster lockup – meaning heat-related distortion and rework are less of a concern. There’s no need for pre-cure ovens, allowing you to streamline your assembly process. They also form consistent bonds across deltas, eliminating stress points and reducing the chance of bubbling.
3M™ Structural Adhesives -
3M™ Structural Adhesive Tapes
heat-cure to a very strong bond and help increase vehicle stiffness. Tapes apply very quickly and precisely, excellent for bonding and isolation of dissimilar materials in hem flanges and roof bows, reinforcing hinges and washers, and more. We provide versions of our 3M structural adhesive tapes with expanding adhesive for gap filling during cure.
3M™ Structural Adhesive Tapes
We help you make it. Better.
You might be surprised at the places 3M structural adhesives can go in automotive body-in-white – and what they can do. Unlike mechanical fastening, using an adhesive allows for placement almost anywhere for design freedom across all common processes in body-and-white.
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Hem flange bonding
Developed specifically for aluminum hem-flange applications, structural adhesives and tapes from 3M can improve hem fill and reduce hem welds. 3M provides two-part adhesives compatible with spot induction, so you can reduce the time and energy required for spot welding. They can also cure at room temperature without washout, reducing heat-related panel distortion. Our epoxy film tapes apply cleanly without squeeze-out, allowing for more consistent adhesive thicknesses and precise bondlines. Some adhesives expand during cure in standard e-coat ovens to provide gap filling. 3M adhesives and tapes designed for body-in-white are compatible with various dry film, draw and lube oils.
Explore more uses for adhesives in body-in-white.
Our experts are available to help you model other applications using structural adhesives and tapes throughout the body-in-white process.
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Repair and pre-assembly -
Safety-critical body structures
Assembly for body-in-white
Our 3M bonding and joining adhesives for body-in-white feature carefully balanced viscosities for excellent throughput using automated equipment.
Key 3M products for automotive body-in-white
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Formulated for steel or aluminum hem flange bonding applications, this two-part epoxy adhesive bonds even to aluminum surfaces with dry film coatings and draw lubricants for reduced cleaning times. It is low sag to facilitate automotive panel assemblies and allow you to eliminate ovens and additional fixturing outside of hemming cells. It features good handling strength to support required cycle times. Semi-structural strength can be achieved at room temperature in less than 3 hours, or with induction pre curing within less than a minute.
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Two-part crash-resistant epoxy adhesive is ideal for bonding carbon fiber reinforced plastics and other composite materials as well as aluminum parts in the primary vehicle body structures. It cures at room or elevated temperature, well below glass transition temperatures of composite resins. It works within broad curing windows and fast cycle times, helping reduce panel distortion.
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Two-part adhesive is developed for oily galvanized and phosphate steel or aluminum hem flange bonding in body-in-white structures. Controlled reactivity allows for longer work time (approx. 30 minutes) and proper panel lock-up after induction heating for accelerated curing. Bonded substructures can be stored up to one month before final e-coat or paint cycle curing.
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Single-layer, one-part epoxy adhesive tape is formulated for bonding and isolation of dissimilar metals in body-in-white applications. Temperature-tacked adhesive applies quickly and precisely, and heat-cures to semi-structural strength during standard e-coat processing. The adhesive expands during cure to provide gap filling.
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Featuring a long work life for repositioning during cure, this two-part toughened adhesive delivers very high peel and shear strength and resists impact and fatigue during demanding conditions. It delivers outstanding environmental performance and bonds to a wide range of materials including metal, glass and many plastics.
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Two-part adhesive bonds to bare and slightly oily metals such as aluminum, cold rolled steel, copper, brass and bronze, with minimal to no surface preparation. Fast-curing acrylic adhesive helps eliminate grinding and surface finishing time required with welding, spot welding and mechanical fasteners. It stays strong and resists impact even in cold temperatures.
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This two-part polyurethane-based structural adhesive is formulated for body-in-white applications which require some flexibility after cure. It is excellent for mixed-material bonding, and can be used to bond composites, metals, glass, and many plastics and rubbers. Fast-curing adhesive stays flexible even in low temperatures.
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Formulated for high impact strength automotive aluminum alloys as well as mild and high-strength steel, this two-part toughened epoxy is recommended for all weld-bonded and rivet-bonded joints. It provides work times as long as one hour, and it cures rapidly with heat. The adhesive applies in a silver color and changes to purple as it cures.
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3M™ Glass Bubbles reduce the density of standard SMCs/BMCs body panels to below 1.0 g/cc enabling weight reductions of as much as 40% and reduce the weight of underbody coating and seam sealer by up to 50% - contributing to lower overall vehicle weight while retaining necessary properties to achieve a Class A surface finish.
Almost since the first automobiles, 3M has been developing new materials to help our customers create new possibilities. So our world-class design, technical and engineering expertise just comes with the territory. If you have a design in mind, we’ll help you make it happen. If you have a particular bonding and joining challenge for body-in-white, we can help you solve it. Let’s work together on the future of the automobile.
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