Companies that are starting up, moving or expanding may be able to tap into state and local economic development incentives to save significant money and improve profitability. With 12.1 million people unemployed nationally, states, in particular, are bidding against one another to attract and retain business.

Whether you are into social networking or not, its popularity cannot be denied. In October 2012, Facebook hit one billion active users. Twitter has more than 200 million active users who send a billion tweets a week. Clearly, more and more companies are turning to social networking sites to advertise their products and services, deliver messages, and improve customer service.

As a member company of the AISIN Group, Aisin Chemical contributes to the automotive industry by developing and producing chemicals, friction materials and plastic parts. Aisin Chemical specializes in adhesives, coatings, and friction materials for transmissions and brake pads.

The world continues to embrace initiatives fostering more environmentally friendly “green” processes, and the converting industry is not exempt from this pursuit. All aspects of the converting process are being scrutinized, including the need to make the adhesives and sealants component of converting more environmentally friendly.

If anything bothers University of Virginia physicist Lou Bloomfield, it’s a wobbly table. So much so that he actually invented a material to eliminate the problem. The material, a type of silicone rubber that is both rigid and fluid—a “viscoelastic” solid—can be placed under a table leg where it conforms to the shape of the leg bottom and the floor surface, perfectly filling the gap.

Ultraviolet (UV) coatings are cured by UV light. They contain almost no solvents that may evaporate during the curing process. Instead, the UV curing process is achieved through polymerization—a crosslinking reaction of the coating constituents.

The photo curing extent of styrenic block copolymer (SBC)-based adhesive formulations applied as a uniform layer on a Mylar film can be readily determined by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).

The adhesives and sealants industry has long played an important role in the manufacture of dental equipment. The use of strong-bonding adhesives has enabled A-dec, Inc., one of the largest dental equipment manufacturers in the world, to assemble various components reliably and economically.

Nordson EFD, a Nordson company, is marking its 50th anniversary this year with participation in numerous North American and international trade shows, a global advertising and public relations campaign, and special customer incentive programs. A global leader in precision fluid dispensing and fluid management systems, Nordson EFD manufactures dispensing equipment to apply controlled amounts of the adhesives, lubricants and other fluids used to assemble a variety of products.

"Environmentally friendly” can mean many different things. For Emerald Performance Materials—a mid-sized specialty chemicals company with four business groups, eight manufacturing operations and sales to more than 70 countries across the globe—it has meant making a concerted effort to reduce emissions and consider ways to improve the chemical composition and volatile organic compound (VOC) levels of products.