Robust body shop solutions are vital to effectively join, stiffen, and seal these mixed materials, while driving sustainability.
Our advanced solutions demonstrate long-term durability and performance across substrates, while driving sustainability with environmentally friendly solutions and processes.
The diversity of metals in today’s vehicles is expected to continue accelerating in order to meet automotive lightweighting needs. Robust body shop solutions are vital to effectively join, stiffen, and seal these mixed materials.
Henkel offers advanced solutions in key areas such as crash, noise vibration harshness, galvanic corrosion, and protection from external environmental influences.
Structural adhesives for automotive applications are known for their ability to overcome complex engineering challenges, including varying thermal expansions and electrical conductivities, in order to join a wide variety of multi-materials. Compared to traditional joining methods such as spot welds or rivets, structural adhesives deliver significant advantages.
Custom modifications improve elongation, strength (epoxy toughening), flexibility, viscosity, and cure times to meet varying manufacturing requirements. Finding the right structural adhesive for your needs can be challenging but the Henkel team is on hand to offer advice and guidance on the best structural adhesive for your design and process.
Corrosion resistance
For low weight applications
For multi-substrate bonding
Fast processing speeds
Reduction in labor costs
Filling of large gaps
Our structural epoxy foam helps strengthen the automotive frame, enhance vehicle safety, enable vehicle lightweighting and improve vehicle noise, vibration, and harshness resistance. Structural foam is also important for automotive insulation and contributes to the overall structural integrity of a vehicle.
Structural inserts, in particular, can enable more than 40 kilograms in weight savings per vehicle if conventional all-metal components are replaced by hybrid designs using high-performance structural foam. Based on a combination of fiber reinforced plastics and specially developed high-performance structural expanding foam, structural inserts deliver high strength and stiffness across crash load scenarios, helping to improve car body torsional stiffness and crash Performance - particularly important in electric vehicles where the battery must be protected from intrusion on all sides during a crash.
By forming structural foam panels within the automotive body-in-white, environmental pressures that create noise and vibrations are minimized which increases the comfort and performance of the vehicle. Coupled with better safety and efficiency, Henkel structural foam materials for automotive applications help improve the entire driving experience.
Enable weight savings
Minimize noise and vibrations
Increase crash performance
Structural tapes and patches add strength and stiffness without excess weight. They ensure design flexibility through expansion to fill a variety of cavity sizes, along with availability as custom die cuts to fit different application needs.
Structural adhesive tapes are provided as pre-formed extruded epoxy with low expansion during e-coat bake for smaller cavity sizes. Structural foam tapes are high expanding for mid- to large cavity sizes.
The structural tape, TEROSON® EP 1001, enables OEMs to further advance lightweighting efforts by delivering high expansion combined with high compressive strength - filling larger cavity sizes without increasing the amount of material needed. This provides a cost-effective alternative to using higher gauge steel for increased reinforcement, while continuing to meet or exceed performance standards.
Typical application areas for structural tapes include window frames, pillar to roof, pillar to rocker, rocker and rail sections. Structural patch application areas include door panels, hoods, fenders, body side outers and roof panels.
Vehicle body panels with large surface areas, such as door outer panels, hoods, bodyside outers and roof panels, are often prone to oil canning or panel deformation. The increased use of aluminum coupled with more metal downgauging amplifies this challenge, making the panels weaker and in greater need of reinforcement. Two primary options, structural reinforcement patches and structural reinforcement sprayable materials are available.
As a sprayable or hand-applied solution, Henkel’s panel reinforcements provide a thin layer of application with a high reinforcing effect, stiffening metal panels to reduce oil canning and deformation. Both magnetic and non-magnetic options are available for increased application flexibility. Henkel’s magnetic version is tacky to improve non-cured adhesion to oily steel substrates with great wash off resistance.
Henkel’s High-Performance Panel Reinforcement Products support light weighting through enabling sheet metal thickness reduction without compromising local panel stiffness and dent resistance. Driven by the electrification of vehicles, light weighting has become one of the biggest challenges in the automotive industry.
Robust body shop solutions are vital to effectively join, stiffen, and seal these mixed materials, while driving sustainability.
Robust body shop solutions are vital to effectively join, stiffen, and seal these mixed materials, while driving sustainability.
Robust body shop solutions are vital to effectively join, stiffen, and seal these mixed materials, while driving sustainability.
Robust body shop solutions are vital to effectively join, stiffen, and seal these mixed materials, while driving sustainability.
Robust body shop solutions are vital to effectively join, stiffen, and seal these mixed materials, while driving sustainability.
Acoustic sealing baffles consist of heat-reactive sealers applied to a nylon or steel carrier, which is precisely positioned to ensure the right amount of sealer is applied in exactly the right location.
The sealer material expands with exposure to heat in the paint shop bake ovens, forming a complete seal of the cavity cross sections where they are applied. Ideal for large-sized cavities, greater than 25 mm, Henkel’s acoustic sealing baffles can achieve a variety of expansions from one single material, reducing tooling costs and improving design and manufacturing flexibility.
The integration of automotive lightweighting material combined with the increased use of sensitive battery components makes advanced automotive acoustic and sealing tapes more important than ever. Henkel offers 2D and 3D sealing and acoustic solutions for the body shop that provide robust noise, vibration, harshness protection - while ensuring protection against water and other environmental elements that can disrupt passenger comfort and reduce vehicle performance.
Body shop sealers are multi-functional in nature, preventing not only sound from entering the vehicle, but also water, dust and air. Available in both pumpable and extruded forms as a weld through seam sealer or for non-weldable application areas, our body shop sealers provide high wash-off resistance, high elasticity, corrosion resistance and are available with or without expansion.
Henkel’s simulation-based engineering helps ensure our anti-flutter foam and high damping foam technologies achieve maximum automotive sound deadening insulation with minimal use of product. This is particularly important as thinner material is introduced exposing exterior panels, such as vehicle doors and roofs, to unwanted movement from wind resistance.
Anti-flutter foam helps limit the movement of the outer panels, while high damping foam eliminates the need for a bitumen pad and further dampens the movement of the exterior panels. Our ultra-soft anti-flutter material is used to ensure the avoidance of adhesive read-through to improve the overall quality of application.
Henkel’s acoustic damping patches are self-adhering, non-reactive sound deadening patches based on butyl rubber with aluminum foil or plastic on the visible surface. Effective against structure-borne noise vibration resulting from metal and plastic components, Henkel’s acoustic damping patches are increasingly important as body panels become lighter, reducing the ability to block noise.
The technology is well-suited for vertical and inverted applications with typical uses in vehicle doors and roofs and in some cases the floor pan and wheelhouse.
- Sustainability for vehicle body
- 2030+ sustainability ambition framework
- Sustainability report 2023
We are committed to building a sustainable future for generations ahead. Through our deep knowledge of advanced materials and partnering with leading automobile manufacturers, we strive to innovate and refine designs and processes that deliver superior performance, long-term reliability, and meaningful value — for both our customers and the planet.
Henkel’s sustainability strategy embodies the company’s dedication to 'purposeful growth.' We are devoted to driving responsible business development, creating greater value for our stakeholders, and strengthening our position as a leader in sustainability.
In 2023, our 2030+ sustainability ambition framework remained a solid foundation for addressing the critical economic, environmental, and social challenges we have embraced as part of our corporate purpose: 'Pioneers at heart for the good of generations.
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