Finished Adhesives and Sealants

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I spend a lot of time these days thinking about our industry and where it is headed. I must confess, I have some very serious concerns about what I see going on, which makes me wonder about the future of our industry and the legacy we will leave for the next generation.

To say that the state of merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the adhesives and sealants industry is “strong” or “robust” would be misleading. In actuality, the M&A markets may have never been stronger.

When manufacturing electronic components, it is important to protect the workpieces against future external influences; most manufacturers use potting or filling to do this. Vacuum dispensing is often the method of choice, especially for high-performance applications.

A large electronics manufacturer did all the staking and potting of electronic components at one of its U.S. plants. The company had been mixing adhesives in-house for over 10 years using a legacy custom adhesive mixing machine. When the machine broke down, the company initiated an internal review of its adhesive mixing process, with the main goal of determining alternatives to mixing in-house, as the cost to replace the mixing machine was significant.

Rapid change has become common in today’s marketplace. With it comes even greater pressure for new technologies to accommodate manufacturing needs to fulfill the consumer demand, both now and in the future.

This year, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is expected to engage in a series of far-reaching regulatory changes from increased fines to stepped-up inspections that could affect countless numbers of companies of all sizes. Businesses that don’t prepare for them now could be facing increased scrutiny, as well as extra expenses.

This is a very broad topic for this column. Adhesive bonding requires several choices to be made, such as type of adhesive, additives like adhesion promoters and surface preparation.

The ChemQuest Group estimates the global adhesive and sealant industry to be approximately $53 billion at the end of 2015, comprised of $46.3 million in adhesives and $6.5 billion in sealants. This figure represents an increase of 3.5% in 2015.

Fourth-quarter net sales increased 3.9%, from $1.37 billion to $1.43 billion.