What is the best glue for rubber?

Permabond 105 is an instant adhesive that bonds most types of rubbers, including Butyl, EPDM, Natural, and Nitrile.  It forms strong bonds in seconds, and the strength continues to increase for 24 hours.  For silicone rubber, use Permabond POP primer before bonding with Permabond.

Cyanoacrylates, like Permabond 105, are commonly used to bond rubber. Although Permabond 105 is my favorite, it may not be the best glue for rubber in your application.  A quick review of some of the properties will help determine if it is right for you.  Permabond 105 has a very low (water-like) viscosity, which can make it difficult to apply manually. Taper tip dispensers are available.  They attach to the bottle and help control the amount of adhesive dispensed.

Some prefer a higher viscosity adhesive such as 268 or 2011 others want a black adhesive such as Permabond 737.   Depending upon the type of rubber, these may be more appropriate.

Applications in which Permabond 105 isn’t the best glue for rubber include:

1. Joints that will be exposed to polar solvents.  Cyanoacrylates withstand non-polar solvents such as motor oil and gasoline.  But do not withstand polar solvents such as water and ammonia.
2. Applications that require more than a couple of seconds to align and assemble.  Permabond 105 sets up very quickly making delicate alignment troublesome. NOTE: Instant adhesive Permabond 731 has a slower fixture time but is still in the seconds, not minutes range.
3. Designs that have a large gap to fill.  Permabond 105 has a maximum gap fill of 0.1 mm (0.004″).  NOTE Permabond cyanoacrylate 2011 fills gaps up to fill of 0.5mm (0.02″).

For those applications, structural acrylic Permabond TA4605 may be better

It has a 5-10 minute fixture time to allow proper alignment.  Need more time?  –  TA4610 provides up to 15 minutes.   Both of these products fill 1 mm gaps and have microbeads to ensure gap.  TA4611 is available without the microbeads and fills up to 0.5 mm gaps.  All three of these products have good resistance to both polar and non-polar solvents.

For more information on bonding rubber. Click here.