Failure is not an option – find success with FlackTek™.
Mix adhesives, coatings, sealants, propellants, composites, and casting materials.
Our bladeless mixing technology overcomes aerospace mixing challenges, while the vacuum feature ensures cleanliness by removing impurities and minimizing outgassing and contamination risks. Mixing under vacuum prevents air entrainment, enabling efficient production of bubble-free adhesives and mixed materials, saving time and ensuring consistent results.
Common Challenges and Solutions
The Challenge: Manufacturers can’t risk mixing material incorrectly. Defined, validated, and repeatable processes bring consistency and repeatability to bonding procedures and sealants.
The Solution: FlackTek™ easily mixes common adhesives such as Hysol EA9394, EA9394-C2, RTV566, CV-2566, CV-1142, and RTV560. These bondlines are critical structural features, and it is imperative that the multiple part adhesive be both properly and quickly mixed, and de-gassed. Clearly, homogenous mixing achieved via processing with a FlackTek™.
Adhesives may need viscosity modifiers/fillers added to them to decrease ‘sag’ associated with bonding applications. Mixing these high surface area fillers into adhesive is difficult and if done improperly can lead to expensive scrapping and rework costs.
The FlackTek™ allows engineers to create robust workflows for optical bonding applications. Typical adhesives used in optics bonding require the addition of Cabosil™ or other fumed silicas to gradually increase viscosity of the system, preventing sag/dripping during application. These high surface area fillers often entrain air, preventing optical clarity in transmission pathways or causing stress concentration problems in structural bonds. Imperfections in these bond applications will often lead to costly repair or rework steps, or scrapped parts entirely. Because of these issues, many applications require a syringe loaded with perfectly mixed, 100% bubble-free adhesive. A vacuum FlackTek™ can quickly achieve this result.
Unreacted two part adhesives can lead to contamination in space.
Pending the specific chemistry and product, a vacuum FlackTek™ offers the ability to strip/clean materials such as silicones, urethanes and epoxies to help reduce collected volatile condensable materials. Many aerospace applications require the use of low outgassing materials to aid in sensor cleanliness during flight and operation. Oftentimes, an overlooked issue with two part adhesives is that unmixed and therefore unreacted low molecular weight polymeric materials can be the root cause of failed CVCM testing. With repeatable mixing as well as the ability to strip contaminants under vacuum while mixing, the FlackTek™ can help users achieve the highest level of cleanliness.
CVCM https://outgassing.nasa.gov/og_desc.html
We help you process these materials, and more…
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Polyimide Films
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Pre-ceramic Polymers
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Rocket Insulation
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Solid Propellants
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Specialty Sealants
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Structural Adhesives
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Syntactic Foams
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Abradable Coatings
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Advanced Ceramic Composites
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Casting Materials
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Energetics
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Filled Resins
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Microwave Absorbers
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Prefilled syringes and cartridges
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to manually degas my materials in a vacuum chamber after mixing in my FlackTek™?
No, there is no need for manual degassing. The FlackTek™ naturally removes air during the mixing process. Additionally, we offer in-situ vacuum mixing with the option to mix in an inert atmosphere.
What is the maximum viscosity or material that FlackTek™ can mix and homogenize?
FlackTek™ can handle highly viscous fluids and semi-solids up to multi-million centipoise.
Is there any variability in the SpeedMixing process?
No, there is no variability. FlackTek™ offers a highly repeatable and defined process due to the programmable and consistent nature of the system. Some systems can store up to 250 programs. Moreover, FlackTek™ utilizes a single-use closed-container system, eliminating the need for cleanup and the risk of cross-contamination from batch to batch.