Hello. In order to temporarily attach a stainless steel plate to tiles, we are planning to glue a bathtub mat (the kind with suction cups) onto the stainless steel. We've tried a few different adhesives but it keeps coming off on the mat side. Does anyone have a good suggestion?
Pop rivet is quite "flat and rounded" if the "pliers side" is facing up. How thick is the sheet metal? Would it be possible to countersink a bolt or rivet? Weld short pieces of threaded rod on the underside of the sheet metal and screw the mat in place?
It's always a bit easier to think about solutions when you know what the whole problem is and not just a small part of it. I often see it in my job that someone has thought halfway and asks about the rest, then it's usually good to take a step back and think about the fundamental problem. No criticism, just a general tip.
If it's like bath mats, they are probably made of rubber, and rubber is typically difficult to glue. You don’t typically glue rubber; you vulcanize it. I don’t really know exactly the chemical and physical difference, but in vulcanization, the rubber combines with the vulcanizing material in some chemical way so that it becomes a unit and not two things just held together by capillary force.
A tip is to talk to a tire mechanic if they have some good vulcanizing material; they use it, for example, when they repair punctures, where a patch is vulcanized onto the inside of the tire. Or call Trelleborg's rubber factory, they probably know about such things. If it is rubber in your mat?
If it's like bath mats, they are probably made of rubber, and rubber is typically difficult to glue. You don’t typically glue rubber; you vulcanize it. I don’t really know exactly the chemical and physical difference, but in vulcanization, the rubber combines with the vulcanizing material in some chemical way so that it becomes a unit and not two things just held together by capillary force.
A tip is to talk to a tire mechanic if they have some good vulcanizing material; they use it, for example, when they repair punctures, where a patch is vulcanized onto the inside of the tire. Or call Trelleborg's rubber factory, they probably know about such things. If it is rubber in your mat?