It seems like carbon fiber is popping up everywhere. There are carbon fiber cars on television shows, magazines tout the benefits of carbon fiber automotive accessories and carbon fiber airplanes have taken flight. Carbon fiber is growing rapidly, with current usage at about 99 million lbs—quite an amount for a material renowned for its light weight. Some studies project carbon fiber to grow at a rate of 11% per year for the next several years to a potential market cap of $3 billion in five years. So what does that have to do with adhesives and adhesive dispensing equipment?
“It stands to reason that increasing the size of the composites market will translate into growth for adhesive bonding,” says Jesse Smith, manager of Industrial Partnerships and Economic Development Science and Technology Partnerships at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). “We have active projects at ORNL looking to increase the strengths of adhesively bonded composites. Composites are already penetrating the automotive market; they have embraced adhesive bonding of even metal parts. That which used to be welded is now often bonded because it is much stronger.”