Another advancement in acrylic adhesives has been in the area of acrylics with improved low temperature properties, sometimes called ‘‘HI’’ or ‘‘high impact’’ acrylics. These variants of the technology not only offer outstanding low temperature properties, but also significant heat resistance makes them ideal for applications where product performance over a wide temperature range is required. Formulators have also further advanced the art in the use of ingredients that are nonflammable and have little or no odor.
These products represent additional advances made by polymer scientists and formulating chemists. They use unique molecular building blocks and polymers, sometimes of different families than strictly acrylic, leading to numerous ‘‘hybrids’’ involving other polymer and elastomer types emerging very recently. In addition to the properties noted above, HI products retain virtually all of the performance features of earlier variants.