The Intertronics Blog

Our range of dispensing equipment includes automatic, semi-automatic and robotic systems, hand held guns and all the consumables users are ever likely to need for their adhesives or other liquids like inks, coatings, greases or oils. So in order to help production engineers, we are offering a free download of 25 Top Dispensing Tips – […]

We are very pleased to announce our new range of ecologically-friendly RENEW products from sales partner Techspray. The innovative Techspray RENEW line takes advantage of current green technology, and still maintains the cleaning strength Techspray products are known for. Techspray’s goal was to create eco-friendly products that surpass what is currently available on the market […]

Modern art is such an integral part of life, the interweb and everything, that some exciting projects are taking place – perhaps where they always have – at the borders between the street and the gallery. So it is even more interesting to find this kind of project dependant upon an advanced flexible epoxy adhesive […]

We have an article published in FAST magazine, out today. Entitled Getting Stuck on Adhesives, we answer frequently asked questions about the curing of adhesives used in structural bonding. Ask us for a copy; or ask for a subscription to the magazine!

Araldite 2028 adhesive is a fast setting, transparent, two-part polyurethane adhesive. What makes this adhesive different is that it is both transparent and UV stable, as well as flexible and fast curing. Araldite 2028 bonds wide varieties of plastics including polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and polycarbonate (PC). Tailor made for seismic cables and cable assemblies, as […]

The Practical Components PC016 Mixed Technology Kit is an effective and economical way to train and evaluate students and employees. This kit contains a variety of standard surface mount and through-hole components with tracks to simulate real world situations. Each kit comes individually boxed with all components bagged and labeled for easy identification. It conforms […]

We just added a video to our page about the THINKY Mixing and Vacuum Degassing Machines. It demonstrates the successful mixing and dispersion of LED phosphors into a silicone resin with absolutely no air bubbles.

We are getting tough with electronic components that need to be made more rugged – to be more resistant to shock, vibration and rough handling. This “toughening-up” process involves edge bonding or underfill of components with the recently introduced Dymax 9422-SC or DYMAX 9-20790 room temperature, fast, light cure adhesives. In particular the Dymax 9422-SC […]

Thank you for working with us in 2009. We wish you a Delightful Christmas, and a Peaceful and Prosperous New Year. We no longer send out printed Christmas cards. Instead, this year we have donated to the Sobell House Hospice Charity, who provide palliative care and support to residents of Oxfordshire (and their families) who […]

We are exhibiting at the Southern Manufacturing & Electronics Exhibition in Farnborough on February http://www.cheapambienpriceonline.com 10-11, 2010. Our stand number is 118. Please come and see us!

In some applications the weight of potting electronics to protect mechanically or environmentally can be a very significant part of the overall weight of installed equipment – sometimes this can be a problem. We have come up with some very advanced light-weight epoxy potting technology which brings the density right down to 0.6. IRS 2012 […]

Sales partners Dymax recently hosted a webinar called Conformal Coating at the Speed of Light: UV Conformal Coating from Start to Finish. The webinar focuses on cost savings of UV and how to qualify and maintain an effective UV conformal coating process. UV conformal coatings cure in seconds to allow for maximum process speed while […]

Very little is known about the diving behaviour of young sea lions who flourish on the Galapagos islands – which is where Araldite® 2012 comes in. Araldite 2012 was found to be the best adhesive to attach recorders and study repeated dives of sea lions down to 350–500 metres. The adhesive has to withstand the […]

We are in the process of bringing into our range five new Araldite structural adhesives, which join the Araldite 2000 Plus line of products. Download the latest Selector Guide to get an introduction to the new adhesives and their capabilities. Maybe you have a bonding application which we can solve?

Recently, we updated our website with an enhanced version of the comprehensive Dymax Selector Guide on MD® Adhesives for Medical Device Assembly. This valuable tool contains a number of charts intended to help R&D engineers and product designers choose the appropriate adhesive for their application. All Dymax MD® Adhesives are biocompatibility tested in accordance with […]

Congratulations to sales partner Fisnar Inc. Not only have they moved to new premises, but have undergone a bit of an image change. Here is their new logo – we like it.  

We are persuading our customers to “see red” literally. The Ultra-Red™ fluorescing technology built into many Dymax adhesives offers assemblers concrete advantages in plastics fabrication. Many plastics naturally fluoresce blue under UV light – this minimizes the inspection advantages of using blue-fluorescing adhesives in parts assembly. Ultra-Red™ fluorescing adhesives remain naturally clear until exposed to […]

Opti-tec 4200 is an encapsulant/potting compound and adhesive. This optically clear polyurethane is ideal for use in electronics or electrical equipment which incorporates LEDs or other items where high transparency and aesthetics are important. Its clear, non-yellowing, hard setting properties will be appreciated in outdoor signage, illumination projects, e.g. pathways, swimming pools or fountains and […]

Our Thinky mixers can give a proven solution to some of the most difficult mixing problems found in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. They will non-invasively mix materials from low viscosity to semi-solid or dry particle with in-situ vacuum degassing. In the field of pharmaceuticals, Thinky mixers are useful for reagent research and development, the […]

The 01005 (or metric 0402) measures just 0.1″ x 0.05″, half the width and half the length of the previous smallest component, the 0201. The placement of 01005s presents challenges in nearly every aspect of the assembly process. Can you pick up, center and place accurately and reliably? With Practical Dummy 01005 resistors and caps […]

We have just added Technical Bulletin TB2009-14 to our articles page about using benchtop robotics to lay down liquid Form-in-Place gaskets.

A mention for an old friend, Jeff Ferry, and his colleagues at Circuitmart. Circuitmart features industry experts, consultants and entrepreneurs discussing the latest in technology and innovations in electronics manufacturing, and other associated areas. Many of the programs are video-based. Have a look at their website, and try a subscription to the newsletter.

This is one of a series of new advertisements which we will be using on websites and newsletters in the coming months.

For some months, we have been using Twitter as both an outlet for company news and for networking. We have found it a useful business tool. You can view our profile or follow us: @intertronics.

Electronics Production World has an interview with Kevin Laphen, President of our sales partners, Practical Components Inc. Practical Dummy Components is the exclusive distributor of mechanical samples for Amkor Technology as well as distributing components from most other leading SMD manufacturers. Practical has a worldwide distribution network (including us in the UK) and in-stock availability […]

A question from the DYMAX blog: We have to manufacture a component which is comprised of two individual parts molded from acrylic (PMMA) that have slightly different additives. The parts have concave and convex surfaces which fit onto each other. We want optical coupling between these two surfaces. Can we place one piece as an […]

Quick, accurate, reliable dispensing of micro-dot quantities of adhesives, greases, inks and oils is now literally “at hand” with the Tridak Micro-Dot™. The Micro-Dot™ dispenser is a brilliant little tool – it uses a standard 10ml syringe barrel filled with pretty much any liquid you like and is ideal for manual dispensing of small quantities […]

In September 2009, DPA (Design Products & Applications magazine) will celebrate the start of its thirtieth year of publishing with a special Anniversary Issue. Over this period of thirty years they have seen extraordinary leaps in technology that have quite simply changed the way we live – the personal computer, mobile telephony and the Internet, […]

If you store your solder paste in the fridge, then you need a process for getting it onto the production line and ready to use – which means it must be at room temperature and correctly mixed. The THINKY SR-500 Solder Paste Mixer and Conditioning Machine makes this process quick and foolproof. It is quick, […]

We are proud to be the centrefold in today’s Laboratory News, with an article about our range of THINKY mixers. Just like a DJ working a club – when it comes to getting the perfect mix, it’s all about how you spin… Traditional methods have served for many years but mixers built on the rotary […]

It takes longer to read this sentence than it does to cure DYMAX adhesives. That’s the message from a new range of Dymax advertisements – this one is aimed at plastic bonding. Typical plastic adhesive applications include appliance assembly, automotive sub-assemblies, headlamp assembly, plastic component tacking and sealing, potting, fixturing and ruggedising plastic housings, high-end displays […]

We have started to integrate into our website some new catalogue sheets from sales partner Techspray. There are seven of them, which you can download here: Conformal Coatings & Temporary Solder Masks Rework & Desoldering Braid  

The new Practical Components catalogue is available on-line. It is full of the latest technology in dummy electronic components and mechanical samples as well as the “old standbys”. Look at our Pack on Package offerings starting on page 5 or the FusionQuad® on page 4, or check out our Pac Tech Flip Chips on page […]

In the arena of high technology and high performance materials the uniform dispersal of nano-sized particles in materials such as resin is extremely difficult work. Traditional methods have significant problems – consequently we are pleased to announce a solution in the form of the THINKY ARV-310 Mixer. The ARV-310 and its larger capacity sibling the […]

We will be talking about UV Technology for Encapsulation at a seminar on Tuesday next week, March 10, at the Williams F1 Centre, Grove, Oxfordshire. It is under the aegis of the UK Display and Lighting Knowledge Transfer Network. The network has been set up by the Technology Strategy Board as a means of encouraging […]

That’s the promise of a free webinar from our sales partners Dymax. I am excited by the use of the web for this kind of information sharing. Taking place tomorrow, it is a little late for most UK-based workers, but I will be there.

Wire tacking for pcb track replacement or circuit modification is a long standing feature of both original equipment manufacture and refurbishment. However, the production people at Allgood Technology Ltd were not happy about the smell of acetone based accelerator fluid they need with their cyanoacrylate adhesive and urgently sought an alternative, finally settling on Flextac […]

Baroness Carrie von Reichardt and her partner were asked by the Mutoid Waste Co to be involved in a show called Mutate Britain, where a number of well-known artists where each given pieces of a WW2 war plane and asked to let their creative juices flow. Explained the Baroness: We were actually given two panels […]

Dyson relies on Araldite® 2000 PLUS adhesives in its leading-edge vacuum cleaners and hand dryers. In Dyson vacuums, which use Cyclone Technology™ to separate dirt and dust from the air using high centrifugal forces, Araldite adhesives bond together core parts of the cyclone system that gives Dyson vacuums their superior cleaning power. Having tested Araldite […]

In support of our THINKY Mixing and Vacuum Degassing Machines, we have added a new Technical Bulletin detailing the potential advantages with adding vacuum to the rotation and revolution mixing action of our very popular THINKY ARE-250. One of the issues with manual degassing (placing the material in a chamber and applying vacuum, often multiple […]

Thank you for working with us in 2008. We wish you a Delightful Christmas, and a Peaceful and Prosperous New Year. This year we are not sending out printed Christmas cards. Instead we have donated to The Alzheimer’s Research Trust, which is funding world-class research to find ways to cure, prevent or treat Alzheimer’s disease […]

James Kent (Ceramic Materials) Ltd had relied for many years on a manual mixing system for their research and quality control of specialist glass powders, but embarked on a search for a process solution that would be more effective, more consistent, quicker and simpler. The glass powders produced by James Kent Ltd are tailored to […]

Yes indeed, we found that they do nail horses’ shoes – but in the process of custom fitting each shoe a farrier will generate a lot of impact energy on his anvil – not only does this cause the ear damaging “ringing” sound but also generates a potentially damaging reflective shock wave up the hammer […]

Our sales partners DYMAX have created See-Cure technology as a visual indicator for their UV cure adhesives by colour changing from original blue to clear during the curing process. This innovative approach greatly aids industrial assembly processes, whether the application is medical, electronic, aerospace or automotive. In each case it is essential to know that […]

Such is the potential for damage from stray static-induced electricity that a vast industry has grown up providing electrostatic discharge (ESD) safe products to be used in sensitive environments. ESD-safe, anti-static shoes, pens, labels, bags… and just about anything else you can think of are on offer. Sometimes, however, the exact thing that you need […]

We have been asked about LED-based curing lamps for some years. The advantages which have resulted from the recognisable use of LEDs in traffic lights and car headlamps may also be true for industrial curing applications. LED outputs are consistent and have good longevity – and their use usually saves money. However, the technology has […]

You probably already know that products from Araldite can be found in almost all areas of life. But it may come as a bit of a surprise to you that products made of our advanced materials can also enhance your personal glamor. Working closely with Swarovski, the Austria-based manufacturer of crystal jewelry, Huntsman has again […]

We are pleased to announce a significant new range of professional grade cyanoacrylate “instant” adhesives – superior quality, high purity single part adhesives which have numerous applications in all aspects of high technology, high performance assembly. Curing at room temperature in seconds, they provide excellent bond strength on a wide range of similar and dissimilar […]

World renowned clocks have been made in Derby since the mid-1700’s, when clockmaker John Whithurst entertained his friends Benjamin Franklin and Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles Darwin) at his house in Queen Street. So, when the Finesse Collection of hotels were planning the reception area of their new boutique hotel in the town it was […]

Our Sales Partners Dymax have been busy building special websites for some of their latest leading edge products. Check out: www.dual-cure.com UV and moisture cure conformal coating   www.seeitcure.com Colour change on cure – a great innovation in process control   www.ultraredadhesive.com Strong, red fluorescence for quality control   These are exciting new resources for […]

We have just had delivered from the printers a new colour A3 glossy colour poster which shows all the standard dispensing consumable products we sell – things like dispensing barrels and tips or needles. This was designed to be any easy reference for part numbers and sizes. If you ask for a copy, then you […]

We have just updated our DYMAX Medical Device UV Curing Adhesives webpage to offer the latest version of their selector guide – it’s a download from there. Dymax are announcing some really exciting developments in this field (more to come soon!). Ultra-Red™ Fluorescing Technology is one. Once assembled and cured, DYMAX UV curable adhesives are […]

The IJF CV629 Cartridge Dispensing Valve is rapidly becoming one of our favourites. It is a pneumatically operated valve designed for precision dispensing of all types of fluids, such as solvents, oils, silicones, glues, UV adhesives, inks, etc. Shot sizes may be fine tuned by the adjustment screw at the top of the valve; so […]

We always like to celebrate when one of our Sales Partners is a winner – and so we did at the Productronica show in Munich last month, when Practical Components won a Global Technology Award in the category of Components for the Aegis Traceability and Control Validation Kit. Aegis Industrial Software Corp, the leader in […]

Optics and packaging are playing an ever more important role when designing LED-based products which are both efficient and maintain performance over long periods of time. Silicone elastomers have proven themselves to be versatile in solving a variety of design and production issues. These include Optically Clear Encapsulants, a range of gels with differing cure […]

The problem involved a painted steel substrate, hand placed glass/ceramic tiles, substrate flexing and widely varying vibration over extended periods in outdoor conditions – in short a Tiki Love Truck! An unusual project even for us, but nonetheless as it proved, well within the capabilities of the adhere IRS 2125 Flexible Epoxy Adhesive. The project […]

How to make a good adhesive bond? There are many factors to take into account beyond selecting the optimal adhesive, including joint design and application process. We have a Users Guide to Adhesives which tackles some of these key topics, which you are welcome to download. Surface preparation is one of those key topics. We […]

Download the complete DYMAX Electronics Adhesives, Coatings & Encapsulants Selector Guide (548Kb pdf).

A bumper issue of FAST magazine arrived this week, its content bolstered by an article from us. Improving Industrial Dispensing with Pneumatic Dispensing Valves discussed what improvements you can get by moving from simple pressure dispensing to a valve. You can download the article from our Technical Bulletins & Articles page.

Dispensing of UV adhesives is a subject close to our hearts, so we are pleased to introduce the new IJF DV509-UV-LF Diaphragm Dispensing Valve. This diaphragm valve comes from the same world leading stable at I&J Fisnar as the pneumatic controller which makes this such an easy to use package, especially for UV curing resins. […]

Usually, our dispensing robots are concerned with more mundane tasks – like dispensing adhesives. But the creativity and humour of the French I&J Fisnar staff are well applied here, a trade show display. Make sure your sound is on for the best effect!

It’s been a flurry of activity here for the last few weeks – we have been very pleased to be a part of the launch of the new Araldite 2000 PLUS range of structural engineering adhesives. There was a global launch in Barcelona earlier in the month, a very impressive affair organised with supreme professionalism […]

It seems to be trade show season. Having just spent a good day exhibiting at the Fastening & Assembly Solutions Exhibition last week (there was a record turnout), we are in preparation for the next show in just a few weeks time. We’ll have a big and exciting product launch at Nepcon this year, May […]

A common requirement popped up again last week – the need to quickly tamperproof some enclosure screws with something which is visible and pretty permanent. Manufacturers want to do this to prevent casual tampering with the innards of their products. Another application is the fixing of the screws of adjustable components, like variable resistors or […]

Please join us in sponsoring our colleague and friend Blaine Bishop from Huntsman Advanced Materials in his Swimathon. It’s for a great cause, the Marie Curie Cancer Care charity. Blaine works with us selling the Araldite adhesives range. A buoyant personality, we are sure Blaine will keep afloat for 5 kilometers on March 24!

Our expertise through the adhere program is becoming well known. Sometimes, we get thrown some interesting (if not always profitable!) questions: I was wondering if it would be possible for you to settle a heated discussion. In which area of the aerospace industry are adhesives used? Is it only composite materials? Or is it also […]

That is the question which was asked recently by our Sales Partners Dymax, in an advertisement introducing a new product in their range of adhesives for disposable medical devices, Dymax MD® 1161-M. The text is possibly too small to read in this reproduction for the blog, but it goes like this: Design engineers strive to […]

We have just updated our Technical Bulletins & Articles page to include a downloadable copy of a very useful overview guide to adhesives. The guide sets out to remove the reservations that engineers sometimes have about adhesives. It includes a survey of modern adhesives and shows how joints should be designed and pre-treated in order […]

Every year, we hold our company review and planning meeting on the afternoon of our company Christmas celebrations. We have set ourselves numerous targets in many areas of our business – 2007 will be busy. Hopefully it will bring more success, and we’ll have fun getting there. We also give out the INTERTRONICS Award for […]

An aluminium speedboat, built by the Dutch company Silvestris Haute Motive Concepts, is making use of structural bonding technology from Huntsman Advanced Materials. Martin de Bruijn, a designer at Silvestris, reveals that the design practices and lightweight materials used mean that the 23-foot boat weighs just 1500kg. The light weight is based on an aluminium […]

Chris Rand, editor of the e-mail newsletter Engineeringtalk (The Independent Weekly Product Information Guide for Product Design and Automation Engineers), has been writing about blogs in his recent editorials. We are thrilled to be mentioned in yesterday’s edition: At the other extreme (and I’m sure they won’t mind me describing them as such), the good […]

Removing air bubbles from materials like epoxies and inks which you mix up yourself can be an irritation. Often some form of vacuum chamber is used to degas the mixture – it is time consuming and not easy! One of the advantages of our Thinky ARE-250 Mixer is that it does not put air into […]

Real World engineering is rarely rocket science, but often it is very much about pushing the boundaries of performance and balancing conflicting parameters. This was exactly the kind of situation which we met when a customer asked our advice on an adhesive application. This unusually challenging application was in the production of very high power […]

We are now able to supply Practical Components dummy resistors in metric 0402 size for your process development and planning.   Just when you thought chip components of 0201 (.6mm x.3mm) were small, the next wave of miniaturization is upon us.   The smaller a piece of electronic equipment becomes and the more complex its […]

The latest survey of robot sales in the UK produced by British Automation and Robot Association (BARA), based at the University of Warwick, reveals UK small businesses are failing to exploit a significant fall in price of industrial robots at a time when US figures are showing record sales of robots to US small businesses. […]

In a post to one of the public electronics manufacturing e-mail forums, one engineer writes: We are currently using Weller WTCP 50 and WTCP 51 solder stations and I want to continue using these for our RoHS compliant production lines. I therefore need to ensure that our boards are not contaminated by the solder tips. […]

Our sales partners, Dymax Corp, have released a new application bulletin about our range of UV adhesives for laminating applications in LCD screens, monitors, outdoor kiosks and navigation systems. This range sticks glass to glass, glass to plastic, and plastic to plastic – with clear, bubble-free bonds. There is a range of products detailed, both […]

It was exciting to receive e-mail from a satisfied customer: My order for optical epoxy Opti-tec 5013 arrived. I used it over the past two days to repair an exhibit-quality quartz specimen that had been damaged. It set quickly, so I was able to leave the specimen in a small sand-box for support as it […]

Most of the automated, robotic dispensers we supply go to the sort of industrial companies one might expect – they are used to dispense adhesives, gaskets, inks & coatings to people making electronics, parts for cars, furniture and the like. So it’s nice to have a slight change of pace – we have furnished a […]

We have many customers who bond acrylic (PMMA) parts together to make display cabinets or point of sale structures. One way of doing this is to use a solvent based adhesive, but these often give cloudy or untidy joints. In an industry where cosmetic aesthetics is important (like selling cosmetics!), a clear and structurally secure […]

We sell a lot of UV adhesives for glass bonding – this application is perfect for UV curing, and we have a lot of capability. Sometimes, our customers need another solution. For example, they might not have a UV curing lamp, and the production volumes do not justify a purchase at this stage. In these […]

Everything you wanted to know about UV light curing materials and equipment is available in the Dymax Comprehensive Guide to UV Light Curing Technology, which we have just put up on our web site. The 32 page document is an impressive piece of work, with a great deal of detail. Dymax are the only major […]

We have helped many pcb repair customers over the years with a Trace Technology Overcoat Pen – this pen writes a clear or green, dielectric material which is used to repair small areas of pcb permanent mask or solder resist. It protects tracks which might otherwise be left bare. Sometimes the need to cover these […]

Package on Package, or PoP, is the latest semiconductor packaging innovation designed to deal with cramming in all the capabilities we have come to expect from things like our mobile phones. You get your logic chip from one supplier, your memory from another, then just stack them up on top of each other. The concept […]

Kapton has become a proprietary eponym… a brand name which has taken on a more general meaning, going beyond the brand. Hoover, for example, is a brand of vacuum cleaner, yet the word is used today to refer to vacuum cleaners of any brand. Spam, a product and trademark of Hormel Foods Corp for its […]

This is the title of a new technical article which I have just put up on our Technical bulletins & articles page. It was written by Nicole Langer, who is the Adhesives Technology Manager with our sales partners, DYMAX Corp. Nicole gives a very good overview of the standard types of structural adhesives which are […]

Our sales partners, Circuit Technology Center, send out a useful e-mail newsletter every couple of weeks or so. The current issue contains a description of some really miraculous repair which they have undertaken on a board which was missing signal return paths. The repair saved their customer tens of thousands of dollars and a great […]

Joined Up Thinking is the title of a series of regular simple e-mails from INTERTRONICS – great ideas for the practitioner of high technology, high performance assembly! These e-mails are only sent to those who we know will find them interesting and helpful, based on what we know about their processes, type of manufacture, industry, […]

Our sales partners, Practical Components, have just re-launched their website. I think it looks really good, with a new colour scheme and a lot of useful information. We have been doing a lot of work with Practical this year, supplying lead-free dummy components and pcb test kits to our customers who are working to comply […]

We had a nice order yesterday from a customer who is a glass specialist, and in this case is making metal TV stands with glass shelves. He will be using DYMAX 605 adhesive, which is an excellent, clear glass/metal bonder which cures with UV light in a few seconds. He also bought an adhesive dispenser […]

IRS 2127 Fast Cure Epoxy Sealant is a thick viscosity two part epoxy, which will not sag or run even if it is applied to a vertical surface. It is a good sealant, with a soft (about Shore A 60) consistency. It will be useful in sealing applications where, for example, silicone cannot be used.