Adhesives & Sealants Industry Top Stories - Articles

Adhesives for Solar Panel Manufacturing

What adhesives should we use in solar panel applications?

Dave Dunn Ph.D.

November 25, 2020

Adhesives have become prevalent in solar applications to replace mechanical fasteners and welding.

UV LED Curing for Adhesives, Sealants, and Coatings

UV LED curing technology offers lower operating costs than traditional technologies, as well as long lifetime, enhanced system capabilities, and environmental benefits.

Jake Chaney Stacy Hoge

November 19, 2020

Ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diode (LED) curing technology has been adopted for adhesive bonding, sealant, and coating processes in factory assembly lines throughout the world.

Pine-Based Tackifiers Offer Sustainable Packaging Solutions

Bio-based tackifiers allow packaging adhesive formulators to meet their most difficult challenges with minimal impact on the environment.

Olivia Jobes

November 17, 2020

Two of the biggest challenges facing the global adhesives and sealants market today are meeting consumer preferences for sustainable packaging and aligning with the industry’s increasing regulatory demands, especially when it comes to food applications.

Pressure-Sensitive Glazing Tapes for Window Fabrication

Residential and commercial window manufacturers depend on pressure-sensitive tapes to provide immediate handleability and increased throughput during fabrication.

Rick Alexander

November 12, 2020

Pressure-sensitive glazing tapes form a bond and seal between an insulated glass unit (IGU) and a framing system, window sash, or door. The term “glazing tape” is used throughout the residential and commercial fenestration industries but can mean different types of products to different end users.

Advancing Adhesives

Modifying Expectations: Novel Urethane Modifiers Outperform Traditional Plasticizers

New urethane-grade modifiers are demonstrating significant potential for formulators to improve performance in polyurethane adhesives and sealants.

Jenna Blankenship Julie Vaughn Biege Laura Kovach Kyle Posselt

November 6, 2020

Today’s urethane product formulators need to meet a wide range of consumer and regulatory requirements. As premium chemistries, reactive adhesives and sealants must be compliant, have good safety and sustainability profiles, and perform exceptionally.

2020 Raw Materials and Chemicals Overview

What repercussions has COVID-19 had on price fluctuations and availability for key raw materials used in the adhesives and sealants industry?

Michael Rezai

November 4, 2020

As a vital industrial link between a turbulent oil and gas market and changing consumer needs, the chemical industry has been tested by the COVID-19 pandemic.

From the Editor

Adhesives and Sealants Industry Finds Gratitude

As an industry, we will gather together virtually for the Adhesive and Sealant Council’s Virtual Convention and EXPO, which will be held November 4-6.

Susan Sutton

November 2, 2020

By any measure, 2020 has been a difficult year. Indeed, for some, it’s been truly catastrophic. Despite all of the challenges and losses, though, good things have still managed to occur.

Ask Dr. Dave

Pros and Cons of Polyurea Adhesives

I understand that polyureas are very fast curing. Why don’t we see them used as adhesives?

October 29, 2020

Polyureas have a lot of similarity to polyurethanes, but they are two-component systems based on reacting an isocyanate with a multifunctional amine rather than with a polyol. This chemical reaction is extremely fast, quite often just a few seconds.

Evolving Solvent-Based Pressure-Sensitive Adhesives

Developments in the construction of high-solids solvent pressure-sensitive adhesives are enabling a range of new products and increasing the toolbox for formulators.

Ann McGlone Steven Medina

October 29, 2020

Sustainability is an ever-present driver for new products and applications. In pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSAs), sustainability is sometimes an underlying influence in the move from solvent- to emulsion-based products. This is not an option for all applications, however, as solvent-based PSAs give increased performance and processability compared to emulsion PSAs.