Adhesives for Demanding Environments

Boyd has led adhesive innovation for more than 70 years, combining excellent manufacturing skills with in-depth material science expertise. Our high-temperature tape and adhesive technologies elevate product performance, reliability, and longevity by seamlessly integrating with thermal management and sealing solutions.

Boyd: Engineered Adhesive Solutions

Boyd’s specialized adhesive solutions bond, seal, insulate, cushion, and protect in a variety of demanding applications. Our high-temperature adhesives balance material compatibility, adhesion strength, and thermal resistance for harsh conditions. Our adhesives integrate with foam, rubber, metal, and plastics, enabling intricate, high-performance designs and enhancing efficiency and durability. We optimize material yield, deliver extremely tight tolerances, and drive economical production by leveraging rotary die-cutting, clean room fabrication, and sophisticated processing. Our expertise in precision manufacturing enables us to develop cutting-edge adhesive solutions that meet the most exacting performance standards.

Optimal Adhesive Performance

The wide range of tape applications requires scientifically produced adhesives suited to various performance requirements. Various factors influence material choice, including environmental resistance, reusability, adhesive strength, shear strength, temperature range, conformability, and surface energy compatibility. Boyd simplifies this complexity with an extensive selection of high-temperature adhesive chemistries.

Acrylic Adhesives: Available in water-based, solvent-based, or pure acrylic variants, these adhesives adhere to various surfaces and provide exceptional environmental durability.

Rubber-Based Adhesives: Natural or synthetic rubber-based adhesives create strong bonds at a lower cost, making them ideal for interior applications.

Silicone Adhesives: Resistant to chemicals and high temperatures, these adhesives perform well in challenging conditions.

Boyd’s Thermal Adhesive Innovations

Boyd’s next-generation thermal adhesives handle higher operating temperatures, improve conductivity, and enhance environmental resistance.

High-Temperature Pressure-Sensitive Adhesives (PSAs): These adhesives maintain strength and flexibility under extreme heat, making them suitable for EV battery packs, aerospace components, and high-power electronics.

Thermally Conductive Adhesives: By combining bonding and heat dissipation, these materials improve cooling efficiency in power modules, heat sinks, and electronic devices.

Extreme-Environment Sealing Tapes: Engineered for chemical resistance, UV stability, and temperature extremes, these tapes boost protection and durability in critical applications.

Boyd: Streamlined Manufacturing with Adhesive Solutions

Boyd’s advanced adhesive solutions enhance cost-effectiveness, performance, and manufacturing feasibility. Our material science proficiency enables us to tailor adhesives to meet specific performance needs across industries. Our global manufacturing and clean room capabilities ensure precise processing, strict tolerances, increased output rates, and contamination-free solutions. Our adhesives integrate seamlessly into assemblies, optimizing production by decreasing assembly time, increasing accuracy, and cutting expenses.

Boyd stands as a reputable industry leader in high-temperature tapes and adhesives, delivering cutting-edge, high-performing solutions for harsh conditions. Our sophisticated materials, meticulous manufacturing, and extensive experience set us apart. Get in touch with our professionals to explore how Boyd’s adhesive solutions enhance your designs.

Boyd: Pioneering Sealing and Shielding Solutions for AI Data Centers

For over 70 years, Boyd has provided sealing solutions for data center applications, including those shaping the future of AI. We leverage our deep material expertise to design and fabricate resilient gaskets and seals tailored to your enterprise needs. Our gaskets create tight seals around server doors, equipment enclosures, and input/output ports to waterproof and prevent dust and moisture contamination. Our EMI shielding materials block unwanted electromagnetic waves to ensure optimal system functionality and data integrity. Boyd’s gasket and O-ring solutions reduce wear and tear, protecting against contamination or water damage. Gaskets, air baffles, and air blockers boost the efficiency of AI systems that leverage extreme air cooling.

Bonding the Future: Secure Connections with Boyd

Quiet Your Data Center: Boyd’s Noise and Vibration Control

Boyd’s Noise, Vibration, and Harshness (NVH) solutions dampen the roar in server rooms. We strategically place our vibration damping materials on server chassis and equipment racks to significantly reduce noise and vibration levels. We also specialize in hard disk drive (HDD) dampeners to improve read-write reliability. These innovative materials absorb and dissipate energy, creating a quieter and more stable environment for AI infrastructure, protecting the equipment, and minimizing the risk of data loss due to vibration. Additionally, our acoustic insulation materials, such as SOLIMIDE® foam, further enhance noise reduction.

Boyd: Building a Stronger Foundation for Data Centers and AI

Boyd pioneers and manufactures Engineered Material solutions with decades of material science experience and expertise. We fortify AI infrastructure within data centers through a proactive approach to engineering sealing, insulation, shielding, technologies. Deploying these advanced solutions enhances the reliability, performance, and longevity of AI systems and data centers, ensuring seamless operations and unlocking new possibilities in technology-driven innovation.

With Boyd’s expertise at their disposal, data centers confidently navigate the evolving landscape of AI to harness its full potential for transformative growth and success. To learn more about our engineered material solutions or to discuss your project needs, schedule a consultation with our experts.

Optically clear adhesive (OCA) bonding adheres display layers together with a sheet adhesive to maximize optical clarity.

In our previous blogs in the display bonding technology series, we discussed air gap bonding and liquid optical clear adhesive (LOCA) bonding. In the final blog of our three-part bonding technologies series, we focus on the most widely used display bonding capability at Boyd: optically clear adhesive (OCA) bonding.

What is the Process Behind Optically Clear Adhesive (OCA) Bonding?

Optically clear adhesive bonding is an innovative technology that allows Boyd to provide thinner bond lines, resulting in thinner overall display stack-ups. OCA bonding utilizes a dry film pressure-sensitive adhesive to join layers together. OCA is laminated to a substrate using pressure to eliminate air gaps from the assembly. This can bond a rigid component to other rigid components or a flexible component (such as an overlay) to a rigid component.

• Rigid-to-Rigid OCA Bonding: A vacuum chamber removes all air from between the layers, closely adhering two or more rigid components.
• Flexible OCA Bonding: A roller pushes all the air out from between the flexible component and substrate (either flexible or rigid) with a manual roller or automated in-line rotary precision converting.

Preventing all bubbles or air gaps maximizes optical clarity, making OCA ideal for applications where readability is critical. We generally handle, process, and assemble OCA in Class 100 clean rooms to assure zero foreign object debris (FOD) or contamination. We have both UV or UV–sensitive environments depending on the material and application.

Why Choose Optically Clear Adhesive (OCA) Bonding?

The main advantage of optically clear adhesive bonding technology is thinner bond lines. Where liquid optically clear adhesive (LOCA) bonding can achieve a bond line between 0.015″ to 0.030″, OCA bonding can get even thinner, achieving a 0.005″ to a 0.008″ bond line. This bonding capability is well-suited for components where thickness is critical, including cover glass, touchscreens, and frameless LCDs.

Another advantage of optically clear adhesive bonding is that the sheet adhesive does not require curing, making it faster than other bonding processes. Using a sheet adhesive also provides tighter tolerance, more consistent flat bond lines, and higher yield rates when compared to liquid adhesives. No special dispensing equipment is needed.

While there are several benefits to using optically clear adhesive, it may not be suitable for all applications. Unlike LOCA bonding, optically clear adhesive results in a bonded adhesive that cannot be reworked, which requires a more rigorous inspection and testing process to ensure high manufacturing yields.

Boyd offers a wide variety of bonding options to meet unique project needs, providing the best-fit solution for your application. To learn more about the process behind our display bonding technologies, read our other blogs listed below or reach out to our experts.

What is Air Gap Bonding?

What is Liquid Optically Clear Adhesive (LOCA) Bonding?

In our previous blog, we discussed the benefits and drawbacks of air gap bonding. In the second blog of our three-part display bonding technologies series, we focus on liquid optically clear adhesive (LOCA) bonding.

What is the Process Behind Liquid Optically Clear Adhesive (LOCA) Bonding?

As the name suggests, liquid optically clear adhesive bonding involves bonding layers of the stack-up together with a liquid adhesive. Instead of leaving an air gap between components, the clear adhesive fills the entire space between display layers. Primarily used when bonding together two rigid materials, LOCA bonding is typically chosen for its increased impact resistance, sunlight readability, and optical clarity.

For each display, Boyd’s engineers develop custom fixturing to fit the precise dimensions of the components. Highly precise metering equipment dispenses a consistent amount of liquid adhesive specific to the display design. Our engineers design a program to measure out the proper amount of adhesive in the optimal dispensing pattern unique to each assembly.

The adhesive is cured with UV light in a class 10,000 clean room. Boyd tests and inspects each display with sophisticated methods and equipment to ensure the highest quality assemblies.

Why Choose Liquid Optically Clear Adhesive (LOCA) Bonding?

Liquid optically clear adhesive bonding is used for its strong overall performance and elevated level of impact resistance. Another major benefit of LOCA bonding is high optical clarity, as the liquid adhesive prevents air gaps from forming within the stack-up. LOCA bonding is a popular solution because it is a re-workable process. If needed, the liquid adhesive can be removed and components can be salvaged and re-used, increasing overall manufacturing yields.

LOCA bonding is a robust technology that Boyd has provided to a variety of industries for over a decade. Boyd’s experts leverage proprietary processes and adhesives to provide optimal bonding solutions for specific display requirements. To learn about the other display bonding technologies at Boyd, read the other blogs in this series below:

What is Air Gap Bonding?

What is Optically Clear Adhesive (OCA) Bonding?

As performance requirements for integrated touchscreens and displays continue to evolve, effectively bonding display components together is critical. A typical display is composed of many layers such as cover glass, a touchscreen, and/or an LCD that are all integrated to ensure the display functions optimally under its intended conditions. Boyd combines these separate components together using high-grade adhesives and unique bonding technologies.,

As a front panel integrator, Boyd offers three main bonding technologies to help customers develop the ideal display construction and component stack-up: air gap (or framed adhesive), rigid-to-rigid liquid optically clear adhesive (LOCA), and optically clear adhesive (OCA) bonding. These bonding solutions serve a wide range of industries, including consumer, medical, military, automotive, instrumentation, and industrial controllers.,

We discuss the benefits and challenges of each of these bonding technologies in this three-part blog series. To begin, we review one of the original display bonding capabilities at Boyd: air gap bonding.

What is the Process Behind Air Gap Bonding?

Air gap bonding uses a framed adhesive gasket around the perimeter of the display layers, leaving behind a small air gap within the stack-up. As there are no liquid adhesives to dispense and no cure time, air gap bonding is significantly less expensive than other bonding options.

Why Choose Air Gap Bonding?

Air gap constructions are cost-effective and lightweight, so they are popular solutions for applications with no readability or impact-resistance requirements.

While the lower cost is a benefit, this construction can present a few challenges. The air gap can affect screen clarity in bright light due to additional light refraction. Displays with air gaps are also more susceptible to moisture damage and breakage, so they are not ideal for outdoor applications or harsh environments.

Boyd has decades of experience creating custom display bonding technologies for the ideal stack-up in your display. To learn about the other bonding technologies available at Boyd, read the other blogs in our series below.,

Liquid Optical Clear Adhesive (LOCA) Bonding

Optically Clear Adhesive (OCA) Bonding

What components make up an “Integrated Display”?

What makes automotive displays different from other types of display modules?

How do you decide on what type of touchscreen to use?

How do you choose what bonding to use?

How much do Display Integration techniques vary between industries?

How can I protect my display?

What is the most exciting display application that you have worked on?

What do you think is the future of Display Integration?

Mechanical fasteners and liquid adhesives have been used to fasten and hold two materials together for centuries. However, this does not mean that they are the best or most cost-effective option available. The traditional usage of hardware is being replaced by a superior alternative: die-cut adhesives. In this blog, we will help you understand how strong double-sided tapes and high bond adhesives can be and how they can save your manufacturing process time and money.

Two of the most common examples of die-cut adhesives are double-coated tapes and high bond adhesives. Both types of tapes are available from a variety of suppliers and are precision converted and die-cut by Boyd.

Problems with Mechanical Fasteners

Mechanical fasteners such as screws, nuts, bolts, and rivets, are often visible and distracting on a device and prevent it from having a smooth, sleek appearance.

Mechanical fasteners require drilled holes in your product. Holes made for these fasteners can accelerate corrosion and potentially decrease the life of the product. When fasteners are under stress or vibration, they can loosen or slide, exposing unattractive unpainted areas and hastens the corrosion process even further.

In addition, if the product is used outdoors and subject to rain or other forms of moisture, fastening holes can also cause leaking. Leaking can allow moisture and other unwanted materials to enter into your product and cause damage.

Problems with Liquid Adhesives

During the application process, liquid adhesives can be irritating to the eyes and skin and produce nauseous fumes. In environments like this, cumbersome respirators and gloves are often needed during the manufacturing process.

When applying two substrates together with a liquid adhesive, the bond line thickness can be inconsistent; this can weaken the strength of the bond and alter the true dimension of the part. Push out or “squeeze out” of adhesive can occur, which creates a mess and increases clean up time unnecessarily. Liquid adhesives also need time to dry, slowing the manufacturing process and causing bottlenecks. Lastly, equipment for dispensing liquid adhesives expensive and potentially cost prohibitive.

Solution: Die-Cut Adhesives

Boyd provides die-cut solutions that can replace mechanical fasteners and liquid adhesives in many scenarios. High bond and double-coated tapes are generally water-resistant and can provide solutions for gap-filling, bonding irregular surfaces, cushioning and dampening vibration, sealing, attaching and hanging lightweight objects, and providing long-term durable bonds. The viscoelastic properties of the adhesives can help to reduce stress, squeaks, rattles, and noise vibrations as well. These adhesives are a great fit for small electronic devices, metal skins, bonding decorative metals, and assembly of devices such as computers, tablets, and cell phones.

Assembly is quick and easy by peeling off release liners and attaching the two substrates together. These tapes are highly effective in hot, cold, and even humid conditions. Die-cut adhesives are UV resistant can maintain strength and withstand all outdoor conditions for up to 35 years.

Tapes can also be placed in areas where it’s difficult to utilize mechanical fasteners. An example includes the placement of a small cooling fan in an electrical device. It is easier and more efficient to use small die-cut pieces of tape to fasten the cooling fan in place instead of screws. The adhesive can also help dampen the noise from the fan.

Boyd is a preferred converter for a variety of adhesive suppliers. Contact us to discuss how die-cuts can replace your mechanical fasteners, in turn reducing your manufacturing costs, bonding issues, and improving the appearance of your product