Advances in Reactive Adhesive Application Technologies
In order to achieve the sophisticated designs that consumers demand, manufacturers are asking their suppliers for more efficient and productive ways to make use of the powerful bonds of reactive adhesives.
The pace of progress is increasing. As you read this, technology is getting smaller, faster and less expensive. For most of the world, that’s good news. For manufacturers, this new production paradigm represents an unprecedented opportunity that brings with it increasing design and production challenges.
As such, manufacturers need to find the technology to effectively achieve the sophisticated designs that consumers demand while maintaining a cost/productivity position that allows for competitive retail pricing. To accomplish this, they've turned to their suppliers with a wish list. Among their requests is a more efficient and productive way to make use of the powerful, durable bonds of reactive adhesives - bonding materials that offer significant production and functional benefits for a range of applications. Today, the industry has answered with a number of technologies that satisfy the demands of both manufacturers and consumers.
The demand for increasingly high-tech devices is one of many factors driving manufacturers’ focus on reactive materials. A number of other dynamics have manufacturers looking for new solutions to enhance efficiency and reduce waste, including the following.
Automation
Especially in a down economy, manufacturers must cut costs and/or increase production rates; automation allows them to do both. New reactive adhesive application technologies are meeting the need for total automation, offering self-actuating and adjusting technologies that can specifically handle the unique characteristics of reactive adhesives.
The Smart-Phone Revolution
Even in this weak economy, the consumer electronics market - including mobile phones, mp3 players and computers - is showing strength. The market’s growth intensified with the appearance of smart phones, particularly the iPhone introduced in 2008. Offering an ever-increasing display size and growing functionality on a hand-held device, as well as a sleek design that grows thinner with every new model, smart phones continue to set new standards for electronics design, raising consumers’ expectations from mobile-phone manufacturers.
Today, the smart phone market is projected to grow more than 3% despite decreases in nearly every other market. Other mobile phone manufacturers are staying competitive by continually introducing new phones. In 2008, more than 1.2 billion phones were made and sold; more than 11% were smart phones.
The “smart-phone revolution” has escalated competition across consumer electronics, altering the public’s design expectations for all electronic and hand-held devices - from phones to blood-glucose meters. Consumers are looking for minimized size with maximum functional areas and multiple features.
This intense production competition means manufacturers typically run only six months from design to the store shelves, and even new models are quickly outdated. Retail stock is always changing to newer, better and smaller models.