The specialty chemicals company is actively developing solutions for easier vehicle recycling, specifically focusing on debonding materials, said Debanjan Ghosh, head of Automotive and Industry vertical at Sika India.
13 Jun 2025 | 1902 Views | By Kiran Murali
As part of its sustainability push, Swiss specialty chemicals company Sika Group is working on separating adhesives and chemicals used in the vehicles at the time of recycling, according to Debanjan Ghosh, head of Automotive and Industry vertical at Sika India. He was speaking at Autocar Professional'sVehicle Lightweighting Conference ...
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As part of its sustainability push, Swiss specialty chemicals company Sika Group is working on separating adhesives and chemicals used in the vehicles at the time of recycling, according to Debanjan Ghosh, head of Automotive and Industry vertical at Sika India. He was speaking at Autocar Professional's Vehicle Lightweighting Conference on Friday.
Recycling chemicals and adhesives used in vehicles is becoming more important as the auto industry moves toward a circular economy and more electric vehicles hit the road. Sika is a leading specialty chemicals company and a key supplier to the automotive industry, focused primarily on solutions for bonding, sealing, damping and reinforcing applications.
From a circular economy perspective, Sika is aligning its operations with sustainability goals by rethinking both sourcing and product development processes. “The use of chemicals in the automotive industry has been increasing. We work on three different perspectives,” Ghosh said. “First thing is that to measure from cradle to grave — how do we evaluate these from an ESG point of view? What we do is also the EPDs [Environmental Product Declarations].”
The company is increasingly using recycled and bio-based materials in automotive applications. “We use plastic components for reinforcers and baffle parts, and we try to develop raw material sources which are recycled,” Additionally, the company is incorporating bio-based feedstock in key formulations. “For example, we use epoxies as structural adhesives and in reinforcers, where we develop raw materials with bio-based content.”
In a bid to reduce the oven temperature and CO2 footprint, Sika is also working on developing products that require less heat to dry and set. This saves energy and reduces pollution, making the vehicle manufacturing process more sustainable.
“The structural adhesives, which are used for the reinforcers or the injection molded baffles, are designed with the baking conditions of the current paint shop which is let's say about 160 - 180 degree approximately. But we have developed products that suit the requirement where you can reduce the temperature of the baking oven to 130-140 degree,” Ghosh said.
However, unlike metals, chemicals and adhesives are hard to recycle and come with their own set of challenges. Traditionally, adhesives were designed for permanent bonds, making disassembly and recycling difficult. Debonding is important for repairability, recycling, and service.
“We are constantly working on it [debonding]. It is kind of a magic sauce that we sometimes talk about - we want to have the best bonding when it is working and then it should just come out at the end of the life cycle. And that's not always very easy, but we are working on multiple solutions and technologies on it and we have developed multiple things,” Ghosh said.
Sika is actively developing solutions for easier vehicle recycling, specifically focusing on debonding materials. For example, they have created a special thermal conductive gap filler used in electric vehicle batteries that can be easily separated when the battery is ready for recycling. The company is looking to collaborate with OEMS to figure out where else this easy debonding technology would be most beneficial in vehicle design and recycling processes.