How does super glue (or any such products) don’t stick to the equipments making them?
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Super glue “dries” and sticks only when exposed to oxygen. So if it is made and stored in an oxygen free environment, it won’t harden or glue the equipment.
Other glues have to “dry” ie the solvent has to evaporate for the gluing action to happen. It is therefore important during the manufacturing process to not allow the solvent to evaporate.
Other glues are made in 2 parts. Only when those 2 parts are mixed will it become glue and harden.
It’s tough.
I worked in a place that made a isocyanate glue for our products.
We used a ton of replaceable plastic items in the production line. Plastic buckets, replaceable hoses, etc.
We tried to limit the availability of the reactive agent (water in the air, in our case) that the glue comes in contact with. But eventually everything gets a coating and needs replacement.
Other parts that were metal that could be taken out and left in a solvent bath for cleaning.
Everyday, most of the production equipment that came in contact with the adhesive would be disassembled and cleaned or replaced.
In some cases, we just had to make due without equipment that would be standard in other types of industrial manufacturing.
For example flow meters. We weren’t going to spend a few hundred bucks for a flow meter that would simply seize up after a few days.
Superglue, aka cyanoacrylate, cures in the presence of moisture. This can be humidity in the air, or moisture on your fingers, etc. When pumping the material from a large container to fill small tubes, the entire fluidic system will be purged with glacial acetic acid (concentrated vinegar), which will remove all traces of H2O. The cyanoacrylate can then be primed through the system and will never cure as long as moisture is not introduced.
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