Adhesion Matters - History of BETAFORCE™ (DuPont)

Episode Date: August 5, 2025

This episode of Adhesion Matters details the pivotal role of DuPont's advanced adhesive technologies, particularly the BETAFORCE™ product line, in driving the transformation of the automotive industry. These innovations are critical enablers for electric vehicle (EV) design, lightweight vehicle construction, and sustainable manufacturing practices. The company leverages its deep scientific legacy to address complex engineering challenges in areas such as multi-material bonding, thermal management, and crash safety. DuPont's focus on sustainable solutions, manufacturing efficiency, and performance underscores its strategic alignment with global automotive trends, positioning it as a foundational technology provider for the future of mobility.

It's amazing how much happens behind the scenes, right? The invisible stuff that shapes our world. Totally. Materials, forces. We rarely think about them. Deka car. So complex. And now electric vehicles.

Everyone talks batteries. But what if, like, the future hinges on something much smaller? It often does. And in the auto industry right now, a really big, quiet change is happening, driven by advanced adhesives. Adhesives. Okay, that's what we're digging into today. We're going deep on how these, well, seemingly simple materials are actually revolutionizing car design, safety performance, especially for EVs. Yeah, and we've sifted through a lot for you.

If, you know, industry papers, research, company info, interviews, the goal is really to pull out the key stuff, the surprising bits. Exactly. To give you the core insights without drowning you in data. And here's nugget number one to kick us off. Making the leap from combustion engines to EVs. It depends, like, massively on what holds the... the vehicle together. It really does. It's not just swapping out the engine. The whole structure is being rethought and adhesives are fundamental to that rethinking. So let's unpack that. Carmakers are

pushing hard for light weighting. Making cars lighter. It's key. Right. Better fuel efficiency for older cars. Way more range for EVs, less CO2, all good things. But it's tricky. Because light weighting means using a whole mix of materials together. Carbon fiber, composites, different steel, aluminum. All in the same car body. And that's where the old ways, like welding or using nuts and bolts, run into trouble, right? Big trouble. Welding different metals. You can get galvanic corrosion. It's like a tiny battery eating away at the metal. Yikes. Yeah. Or the heat from welding can just damage the materials and composites. You can't weld fibers. It just doesn't work. The strength comes from the fibers. Okay, so welding's problematic. What about fasteners? Screws, rivets.

They have their own issues. You're drilling holes, which inherently weakens the material right there, creating stress points. Ah, yeah. That can lead to cracks or layers peeling apart, especially in composites. Plus, you still have corrosion risks if you mechanically fasten certain materials together, like carbon fiber next to basic steel. The galvanic corrosion again. Exactly. Adheses can often act as an insulator between those materials.

So the big question becomes, how do you join all this different stuff reliably without adding? weight or causing problems down the road. And that's where adhesives really shine. Instead of joining at points like a rivet, they create a continuous bond line. Okay, covering more area. Right. Which maximizes the surface for load transfer. That means better strength, better distribution of stress, and just, you know, much better durability overall. So it's not just sticking parts A and B together. It's enabling completely different ways to design and build a car. Precisely. Automakers can move away from just bending metal into shape. They can create these really sophisticated hybrid structures using multiple materials optimized for specific jobs. Plus, I imagine it looks cleaner,

no rivets or weld marks. Definitely an aesthetic benefit. And it cuts out steps in manufacturing no need to punch all those holes. Okay, so adhesives are clearly a huge advantage. And you mentioned DuPont and their Beta Force line are big players here. Yeah, DuPont is a fascinating company. Started way back making gunpowder, now a giant in chemistry. and materials. Think Lycra, Nomex. Wow. Okay. Quite the history. And that history of innovation feeds into Beta Force. It actually builds on pioneering work from Dow Automotive, like their beta-made adhesives, which DuPont acquired and really refined.

So what makes Beta Force special? What are its superpowers? Well, first off, its ability to join really diverse materials is pretty incredible. Carbon fiber to aluminum, composites to steel, SMC to aluminum. It handles these combinations exceptionally well. Which is exactly what's needed for those multi-material designs we talked about. Exactly. And then there's the manufacturing side. This is huge.

How so? Beta Force cures at room temperature. No ovens. No massive energy-guzzling ovens needed for curing the adhesive. Think about the energy savings on a production line making thousands of cars. It's significant. That is a big deal. What else?

Often it doesn't need a primer before applying it. Oh, simplifying the process. Right. Fewer steps, fewer chemicals. Plus, the cycle times are incredibly fast. We're talking around a minute. A minute for a structural bond. Yep.

Essential for keeping up with mass production speeds. And they can even adjust the open time how long you have to position the parts for flexibility on the line. That's impressive efficiency. And sustainability. Does it tick that box, too? It does. Beta Force actually contains about 30% renewable and bio-based materials by weight. So high performance and a better environmental profile.

Okay, let's shift to how this affects the car after it's building. built. Performance, safety. Well, enabling later materials is the first big win. Better efficiency, longer EV range, we covered that. But it also improves the feel of the car. Oh. Acoustics. Noise, vibration, harshness, NVH, they call it.

That continuous bond line dampens vibrations much better than port fasteners. So a quieter, smoother, ride. Hmm. I hadn't thought of that. And structurally, safety. It acts as that barrier against corrosion between dissimilar metals, which is key for long-term integrity. Right, the galvanic thing. And in a crash, this is crucial.

Adhesives distribute impact forces over a much larger area compared to fastener. Instead of concentrating the force at specific points. Exactly. It helps the whole structure absorb energy more effectively. Think of it like spreading the load. Plus, these adhesives maintain their strength, even at high temperatures, and they have this great combination of stiffness, what they call modulus and stretchiness or elongation, before breaking. That helps hold the vehicle together under extreme stress. That sounds like a major safety upgrade. Can you give some real-world examples? Where is

beta-force actually being used? Oh, all over the place. Roofs, tailgates, doors, hoods, spoilers, even the core passenger cell structure. Any specific cars that tan out? The BMWI-3 is a classic example. Its passenger compartment is made of carbon fiber, and beta force was the key joining technology. The whole structure was pretty much bonded, not fastened. Wow, almost entirely adhesive-based. Yeah, and they optimized it for those super-fast one-minute cycle times. The Audi A-8 is another one who uses it to attach lightweight parts like a carbon fiber rear wall, which helps make the car incredibly stiff and handle well.

So it's not just niche, it's in mainstream and high-performance vehicles. Definitely widespread. Okay, so structural bonding is one thing. But you mentioned EVs specifically. What about the battery pack itself? That seems like a whole different challenge. It absolutely is. The stakes with EV batteries are incredibly high.

You've got to manage heat prevent thermal runaway, which is, you know, fires. Big fear factor. Right. You need them to last 10, 15 years or more. And they need to be structurally sound, especially as designs keep changing to pack more energy in. So safety, longevity, structural integrity, tough combination. How do adhesives like beta force, and I think you mentioned beta tech, help here? Beta Force is vital for bonding and sealing.

the battery housing itself, protecting it from water, dirt impacts, but also helping manage heat and contributing to crash safety for the pack. So it's structure and protection? Yes. And it enables these newer cell-to-pack or even sell-to-vehicle designs. What does that mean exactly? Basically, removing layers of packaging around the battery cells to fit more energy and less space.

But that means the adhesive has to do more work holding things together structurally and helping manage the heat. Okay, and the heat part, that's where Beta Tech comes in. Exactly. Beata Tech is a thermal interface material, or Tim. Its job is specifically to transfer heat efficiently away from the battery cells to the cooling system. Preventing hotspots. Right.

Keeps the battery in its optimal temperature range, which is crucial for performance, longevity, and safety. And looking ahead, with things like 800-volt systems becoming more common, you need even better thermal management and new kinds of electrical insulators. DuPont's working on that too. It sounds like really critical work. Has this tech gotten any recognition? Oh, yeah. Beta Force won a 2024 R&D 100 award, which is pretty prestigious in the tech world. Right.

And specifically, one of their thermally conductive adhesives, Beta First, 2,800 TC, won a Silver Edison Award back in 2021. For helping the Audi E-Tron manage battery temperature during super fast charging, a perfect example of how adhesives enable better EV performance. So behind a lot of this at DuPont is Andre's Lutz. He sounds like a key figure. What does having someone with his deep, like chemical background driving the strategy mean? It means a lot. He's not just a manager. He's a PhD chemist, a DuPont Technical Laureate, won their Peterson Medal for major product contributions.

So he really knows the science. Deeply. He holds numerous patents himself in adhesive tech. That hands-on inventive understanding is crucial for pushing boundaries. It means the strategy is grounded in what's chemically possible and where the next breakthroughs might lie. And what's his vision? How does he see adhesives fitting into the future? He really emphasizes that adhesives are core to DuPont's identity, part of their DNA, as he puts it. He said something like, we bring nearly 75 years experience, and we are translating that expertise to serve the growing hybrid and electric vehicle market.

So leveraging that history for the new challenges. Exactly. And he connects it directly to sustainability. He talks about how lightweighting enabled by adheres. adhesives cuts CO2 and fuel consumption. It's not just about making cars. It's about making them better for the planet. That's a message that definitely lands today. Absolutely. And his focus stays sharp on the critical roles in EVs. Thermal management, crash safety, making battery production more efficient. He also stresses collaboration working closely with automakers to figure out what they need next. And they have ambitious goals, right? Carbon neutrality. Yeah, they aim to be carbon neutral in their automotive work even sooner than the company's overall

2050 target. It's a proactive stance. The scale of their current impact is pretty staggering. It really is. Lutz often points out that Betamate, their other major adhesive line, is used in roughly one out of every three cars produced globally. Wow. One in three. That's incredible reach. So wrapping this up, it feels like we've uncovered something fundamental. These advanced adhesives, beta force, beta tech, they're not just, you know, fancy glue. Not at all. They're enabling technologies, they're underpinning this huge shift in the auto industry towards vehicles that are safer, lighter, run longer, and are hopefully more sustainable. It really makes you appreciate the hidden innovations all around us. And the innovation doesn't stop, you know, the conversation is

already moving forward. Where's it headed next? Well, think about it. If bonding things together so effectively is revolutionary, what about taking them apart? Especially for recycling. Ah, debonding, unsticking them cleanly. Exactly. Developing adhesives that can be triggered to release their bond when needed, that's becoming a really hot research area. The whole life cycle matters now. So the ability to bond and then maybe debond, that could completely change how we think about manufacturing, recycling, the whole circular economy idea. It really could.

It's that next frontier in making materials science truly sustainable end to end. Definitely something to keep an eye on.