Sealants Find Their Niche in the North American Market
Part of the fragmentation is due, of course, to the fact that there are a large number of types of chemical sealants, each with its own set of properties that makes it more suitable for some applications than for others. What is troubling, however, is the lack of consistency from supplier to supplier as to what is or is not a sealant. Some products called sealants are in fact adhesives, while some that are called adhesives are actually sealants.
In addition, there are no standards on how to classify a product that has both adhesion and sealing capabilities. This poses a challenge to the industry in that if suppliers of adhesives, sealants and coatings all lack agreement on product definition, the potential customer must be even more confused.