Loctite shelf life

[Chris TriceParticipant @christrice43267]

Most adhesives degrade over time. The most overwhelming factor for controlling this is storage temperature. Cold or cool is best but being careful that condensation does not become an issue. Araldite is epoxy. Unlike polyester resins (for example) where the ratio of hardener to resin is not critical, epoxies are not the same. Adding more hardener doesn’t speed up the setting time. It just reduces the strength of the adhesive once it’s set. There are two part acrylic adhesives (Devcon do one called Plastic World) which are far superior to epoxy when it come to adhering to metal and as the name implies, a lot of plastics too.

Edited By Chris Trice on 11/05/2013 09:34:43

[Chris TriceParticipant @christrice43267]

Most adhesives degrade over time. The most overwhelming factor for controlling this is storage temperature. Cold or cool is best but being careful that condensation does not become an issue. Araldite is epoxy. Unlike polyester resins (for example) where the ratio of hardener to resin is not critical, epoxies are not the same. Adding more hardener doesn’t speed up the setting time. It just reduces the strength of the adhesive once it’s set. There are two part acrylic adhesives (Devcon do one called Plastic World) which are far superior to epoxy when it come to adhering to metal and as the name implies, a lot of plastics too.

Edited By Chris Trice on 11/05/2013 09:34:43

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Chris,

Fair comment, but

This thread started with a question about "Loctite" and was [I think] specific to the Anaerobic "threadlockers" and "retainers" that we commonly refer to as Loctite.

Henkel now gives us a single Policy Statement to cover all Loctite Branded products [many and varied] …. and I sense a "lowest common denominator" approach to their Shelf Life Policy.

I am hoping that Fizzy can enlighten us, with some actual test data for the Anaerobics.

MichaelG.

 

 

 

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 11/05/2013 10:04:27

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Chris,

Fair comment, but

This thread started with a question about "Loctite" and was [I think] specific to the Anaerobic "threadlockers" and "retainers" that we commonly refer to as Loctite.

Henkel now gives us a single Policy Statement to cover all Loctite Branded products [many and varied] …. and I sense a "lowest common denominator" approach to their Shelf Life Policy.

I am hoping that Fizzy can enlighten us, with some actual test data for the Anaerobics.

MichaelG.

 

 

 

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 11/05/2013 10:04:27

[nigel jones 5Participant @nigeljones5]

Apologies for the sweeping statement without factual data – but it was many years ago. I was QA and Technical manager for Linde Fork lift trucks, built to the same standards as automotive, and we used various grades of loctite on lots of components (more sweeping generalisations…sorry). If a bottle was out of date by just a day it was destroyed, which was a damned expensive thing to do. I dont have the data, but we tested out of date product and found the results unacceptible – nuts and studs not holding etc. Cant be more unhelpful than that, sorry.

[nigel jones 5Participant @nigeljones5]

Apologies for the sweeping statement without factual data – but it was many years ago. I was QA and Technical manager for Linde Fork lift trucks, built to the same standards as automotive, and we used various grades of loctite on lots of components (more sweeping generalisations…sorry). If a bottle was out of date by just a day it was destroyed, which was a damned expensive thing to do. I dont have the data, but we tested out of date product and found the results unacceptible – nuts and studs not holding etc. Cant be more unhelpful than that, sorry.

[Bob YouldonParticipant @bobyouldon45599]

Hi folks, I'm still using the remains of a very large bottle of Loctite 601 given to me in the early 70's, now with all these comments on shelf life of the material, what then of the expected life of the product when in use? Can I expect to see 40 years of locomotive building suddenly fail? Seriously, whenever I use the Loctite 601 the old adage of cleanlness is next to godliness works every time and to date I have never had a failure; it is imperative the recommended tolerances are maintained whilst machining the mating components and all oils etc are totally removed, better still, avoided whilst machining the component parts particularly in the case of cast iron.

Regards,

Bob Y

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