CONSUMER SAFETY BULLETIN
                  Auto glass bonding surface preparation precaution          

June 3, 2004

 
To All Dinitrol Adhesive Customers and Technicians;

Over the past year and a half there has been an increased awareness and concern about the potential of primer and/or urethane adhesion failure to auto glass due to contamination on the bonding surface of glass
(See http://209.101.133.27/documents/May-June%202003%20AGRR%20Reports.pdf May/June 2003 AGRR)

There is currently a subcommittee of the Auto Glass Replacement Safety Standards Council (AGRSS) focused on this glass contamination issue.  The objective of this subcommittee is to see if there can be a solution to correcting this industry wide problem.  One proposed solution has been to get the Z26.1 SAE standard revised which would require glass manufacturers to only supply glass to the aftermarket that is not contaminated on the bonding surface.  Any other manufactured component of the bonding surface of the glass whether it be chemical or physical that could limit proper adhesion on the glass has not been apart of the Z26.1 discussion. There are however, some preliminary findings that suggest contamination is not the only reason for some of the bonding failures.

Over the past 18 months Eftec Aftermarket has collected and tested a large sample size of glass which has allegedly failed with a variety of different brands of adhesive systems. At the moment, it is only a guess that perhaps one out of 1,000 to 10,000 windshields in the US market have some kind of contamination or other chemical or physical make up that could pose a risk to proper adhesion.  Until a formal industry solution is found or a standard revision is made, the following protocol applies when using Dinitrol’s one step primer D-528.

1. Apply a generous film of industry approved glass cleaner to the glass bonding surface. If the glass cleaner “fish-eyes” or beads up like water on oil on the bonding surface after a few seconds of application, this is a sure indication, but not limited to the fact, that this glass needs special cleaning/preparation attention.  (If D-520 Activator/Cleaner is to be used and the D-520 also “fish-eyes” or beads up then these steps should also be followed even with the pretreatment of D-520)
2. Use a scour pad such as a Scotch-Brite pad (Trade Mark of 3M) to scrub the surface of the bonding area. Apply firm pressure to your scrubbing action. Continue with a back-and-forth type action a few times until the entire bonding surface has been treated with the abrasive scrub. In most cases, you will have scuffed the surface well enough to visibly see where you have and have not scrubbed. Make sure not to scrub in the inside area of the glass adjacent to the bonding area which would be in view after installation. Do not over scrub or scrub so hard that the ceramic comes off or is jeopardized.
3. Wipe the glass clean with lint free paper towel or a clean, lint free cloth. More glass cleaner may be required to ensure all of the contamination has been removed. Repeat the cleaning, wiping and drying process as necessary.

Use a new scour pad after:

1. every 5-10  windshields
2. the scour pad becomes obviously contaminated
3. the pad looses appreciable scrubbing or scuffing action or
4. which ever comes first.

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