Bonding Rubber to Metal

[Aussie Bruce]

Is grit blasting the metal surface also a good idea? A long time ago, I used to work for company which did a lot of metal/rubber bonding, but I was not directly involved with it. I know they put a lot of time in to getting right for some critical and long-life defence requirements, much more demanding that in this case.

Oh yes it is super critical in defense and industry for all molded to metal bonding white metal is the acceptance standard

https://www.graco.com/us/en/contrac...p-standards-explained-sspc-nace-iso-8501.html

In all cases we would typically mould the part fully encapsulated in rubber the only part not covered would be the bolt down face which cannot be covered or engineer the part to have crush points in the mould to coin the sealing surface remember your adhesive can also be used as a seal