A Henkel Adhesive Technologies film shot at RAMPF Production Systems provides the perfect stage for optical bonding technology.

Henkel adhesives are household names, with brands such as PRITT^®, PATTEX^®, and LOCTITE^® being used for handicrafts, DIY, and repairs. It comes as no surprise, then, that Adhesive Technologies is the largest of the global company’s three divisions. In addition to adhesives, sealants, and coatings, Henkel is also known for its laundry, home care, and beauty care products.

Henkel Adhesive Technologies does not generate the largest share of its sales with consumer adhesives, though, but rather with customized solutions for industrial applications in over 800 market segments – including the optical bonding technology of RAMPF Production Systems, the world’s leading expert for production systems with integrated dispensing technology.

Henkel’s bonding system recently even starred in a film together with RAMPF’s optical bonding technology and DC VAC vacuum dispensing system – but let’s not get ahead of ourselves …

Optical bonding represents the future of automotive cockpits and much more besides. Crystal-clear, bubble-free displays and touchscreens have become an everyday part of our lives, and being without tablets and smartphones is now virtually inconceivable.

But how exactly does a sheet of glass become a touchscreen, accurately relaying each tap on its surface to the LCD modules below?

Trapped air bubbles are the enemy of any display and must be avoided at all costs during bonding processes. That’s why RAMPF Production Systems bonds these displays under vacuum, extracting the air during the joining process in the vacuum chamber.

A high-performance LOCTITE^® adhesive from Henkel is the ideal solution for the slot nozzle used in RAMPF’s DC-VAC vacuum dispensing system. In the space of just a few minutes, the LCD module and glass cover are bonded with millimeter precision and without any bubbles, ready for turning into displays and touchscreens.

To demonstrate the sophisticated optical bonding process, the Henkel team decided to make a film showing two sheets of glass being bonded at RAMPF Production Systems. The cleanroom – a separate, meticulously cleaned, and dust-free room containing the optical bonding system at the RAMPF plant – served as the set. Because if air bubbles are undesirable, dust particles certainly won’t be tolerated!

Having arrived at the plant in Zimmern o. R. in a van packed full of cameras, lenses, and lighting equipment, it took the two members of the film crew an hour to get everything set up. Following a painstaking lighting and styling process, the room and cast were finally ready.

“Lights, camera, action,” said producer and director Willem Bramsche. This gave the green light to RAMPF employee Daniel Grottke, who operated the optical bonding system during the entire filming process until all the sequences – from pre-treatment and material application to the precise joining of components – were in the can.

The need for an assistant became abundantly clear as filming progressed. Young Lukas Dreiser, who was helping Bramsche, had his hands full showing everything and everyone in the proper light while also ensuring perfect filming conditions.

The final scene with Henkel employee Burak Kutlu – in which the two sheets of glass with the RAMPF logo, bonded without a single sign of a bubble, were examined closely and found to be flawless – rounded off the film with a nice happy ending. This marked the successful conclusion of a somewhat unusual performance at the RAMPF Production Systems plant dominated by huge dispensing and robot systems.

For Bramsche and his team, however, this was just the start of the project. It will take them quite some time to view and edit the footage and then add a soundtrack.

WE ARE VERY MUCH LOOKING FORWARD TO WATCHING THE NEW HENKEL INNOVATION FILMS AND SEEING HOW RAMPF’S KNOW-HOW IS PORTRAYED.