Cyanacrylate adhesive with ester and polymer additives

An adhesive composition comprising

• (a) a biscyanoacrylate of the general formula:
• [H2C=C(CN)—CO—O]2R1 (I)
• wherein R1 is a branched or unbranched difunctional alkane group containing 2 to 18 carbon atoms optionally containing hetero atoms or aliphatic rings or aromatic rings;
• (b) a polymer selected from the group consisting of polyvinyl esters, polyvinyl ethers, polyesters of acrylic acid, polyesters of methacrylic acid, styrene, copolymers thereof, terpolymers thereof and mixtures thereof;
• and,
• (c) an added ester, the ester being at least one partial and/or full ester of monobasic or polybasic aliphatic carboxylic acids containing 1 to 5 carbon atoms directly attached to one another, and monohydric to pentahydric aliphatic alcohols containing 1 to 5 carbon atoms directly attached to one another, the number of carbon atoms directly attached to one another in the aliphatic groups of the acid being at most three where the aliphatic group of the alcohol contains 4 or 5 carbon atoms and the number of carbon atoms directly attached to one another in the aliphatic group of the alcohol being at most three where the aliphatic group of the acid contains 4 or 5 carbon atoms, wherein the adhesive has a polymer content of 1 to 60% by weight, based on the adhesive as a whole.