Edgebanders: Maximizing Your Glue Pot

Start by performing regular cleaning, maintenance and lubrication on the unit. This is vitally important to the longevity of the glue pot. Since each manufacturer of edgebanders has a different recommended procedure for this, refer to your machine manual for specific information on safety and cleaning procedures.

After you have reviewed your machine manual, you will typically see that the following steps should be followed in properly adjusting your glue pot.

Figure 1Step 1:
After cleaning and inspecting the glue pot, adjust the strike plate or shoe.

There needs to be a 4/1000” or 0.1 mm gap between the shoe and the roller. This prevents the panel material from riding against the roller causing chipping of the panel and premature failure of the roller.

Step 2: 
Check the amount of float or deflection on the entire glue pot as the panel is fed through the machine and rides against the strike plate or shoe.

When properly adjusted, the glue pot should deflect or float 1 mm. It takes a trained eye to visually check this movement. This best means of checking or measuring this would be to utilize a dial indicator mounted on a magnetic base referenced off the side of the glue pot.

Step 3: 
Clear acetate is loaded onto the machine similar to standard coiled edgebanding.

Figure 3Figure 5The acetate (Figure 3) is helpful to check the glue film thickness on the panel because it is transparent and does not have a primer on the backside. This enables you to easily pull the tape off when examining the glue line on the panel.

Figure 4Set the proper film thickness by adjusting the opening of the gates. Remember if you have a two-gate system (Figure 4) be very careful about opening the return gate first. Otherwise hot melt will spill out and you will quickly have a major cleaning job. The proper film coverage is based upon your desired results and should be such that there are no open voids on the core surface (Figure 3).

The return gate (Figure 5) on a gravity style glue pot should always be opened first and closed last in order to prevent the glue from spilling.Open the return gate far enough to allow for proper set-up of the application gate. Now open the application gate (Figure 5), which is used to meter the correct film thickness. After the proper film thickness is set, the final position of the return gate should be adjusted. Push the return gate handle closed until it is 1/16” further open than the application gate.