Developing An Adhesive and Sealant Selection Guide
The challenge in developing a useful guide involves balancing comprehensive coverage of in-scope topics without inevitably getting lost in the proverbial weeds.
Buyers and end users of adhesives and sealants―who are new to adhesives technology―want to learn all they can about chemistries, resin types, application methods, performance properties, dissimilar substrates, engineering practices, and formulated products on the market. Having spent over 30 years as senior materials engineering manager for a major OEM truck manufacturer, I enthusiastically accepted the leadership role in the Adhesive and Sealant Council’s (ASC) Growth Task Force, which involved taking the lead to develop the ASC’s recently released resource for adhesives’ end users, “OEM Paint Shop, Trim, and Final Assembly Adhesive & Sealant Selection Guide.”
My newfound role in this project was reminiscent of an earlier time in my career as a new and inexperienced user of adhesives and sealants. I can still vividly recall having to painstakingly work through each adhesive and sealant application without the benefit of my current knowledge. My challenge was to make sense of a patchwork of internal documentation—material specifications and application instructions—which I worked through with our line support engineers. The goal was to ensure we were complying with engineering intent while refining our applications and documentation for continuous improvement. The application instructions went from older, hand-drawn drafting artwork quality to “new” CAD 2D line drawings, which were virtually useless and impossible to decipher. We went through various iterations of technology and new engineers trying to decipher the last set of instructions that looked good at the time. I recall continually being disappointed that, at the end of each project, our internal documentation wasn’t nearly as comprehensive as it could be.