New SCAQMD Rule 1168 regarding Top and Trim Adhesives

We, at Adhesives Solutions want to keep updated all of our Top and Trim Adhesive users and resellers about the new regulations for Top and Trim Adhesives effective January 1st 2019.

Rule 1168 is the rule governing the sale and usage of Adhesives and Sealants in the South Coast Air Quality District; you can download a copy through this link
https://www.arb.ca.gov/drdb/sc/curhtml/r1168.pdf

RULE 1168. ADHESIVE AND SEALANT APPLICATIONS

Purpose and Applicability:
The purpose of this rule is to reduce emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), toxic air contaminants and stratospheric ozone-depleting compounds from the application of adhesives, adhesive primers, sealants and sealant primers.
This rule applies to any person who uses, sells, stores, supplies, distributes, offers for sale, or manufactures for sale any adhesives, adhesive primers, sealants, or sealant primers, unless otherwise specifically exempted by this rule.

This is the definition for TOP AND TRIM ADHESIVE:

(96) TOP AND TRIM ADHESIVE is an adhesive used during the installation of automotive and marine trim, including, but not limited to, headliners, vinyl tops, vinyl trim, sunroofs, dash covering, door covering, floor covering, panel covering and upholstery.

In this new Rule the SCAQMD raised the VOC limit from 250 to 540 in an effort to stop the usage of high VOC adhesives with up to 720 VOC’s within the District. A 540 VOC adhesive will be good enough to withstand high heat conditions encountered inside vehicles.

Sell-Through and Use-Through Provision:
Any regulated product that is manufactured prior to the effective date of theapplicable limit specified in Table 1 and that has a VOC content above that limit (but not above the limit in effect on the date of manufacture), may be sold, supplied, or offered for sale for up to three years after the specified effective date and used up to four years after the specified effective date.

This means that any Top and Trim Adhesive manufactured before 2019 would fall into the sell thorough period but in this case Top & Trim adhesives were already over the 250VOC limit stated by the rule.

(f) Administrative Requirements:
(1) Regulated products manufactured after January 1, 2019, shall display the following:
(A) Each container shall display the VOC content of the regulated product, as recommended for application. VOC content shall be displayed as grams of VOC per liter of regulated product, excluding water and exempt compounds, or grams of VOC per liter of material for low-solids products.
(D) Each container of all Top and Trim Adhesives shall include the statement “For Top and Trim Uses Only” prominently displayed.

Under the Exemptions within rule 1168 is this statement:

(C) A facility that demonstrates that the total volume of noncompliant products is less than 55 gallons per facility per calendar year. A facility may not use this paragraph to exclude noncompliant
adhesives used in architectural applications, contact adhesives, special purpose contact adhesives, and adhesives used on porous substrates. Effective January 1, 2019, a facility may not use this
paragraph to exclude noncompliant rubber vulcanization adhesives and top and trim adhesives;

The SCAQMD is trying to prevent the usage of high VOC adhesives within the District by raising the limit and allowing manufacturers to introduce a Top and Trim Adhesive with 540 VOC’s or less.

Techno 178. This is a high quality neoprene adhesive with very high heat resistance sold in 5 gallon pails and 55 gallon drums through Adhesive Solutions.

DAP® Weldwood® Landau Top & Trim 1145 Contact Adhesive is the new CA compliant adhesive from DAP. High heat resistant sold in 5 gallons pails.