Adhesives & Sealants Industry Top Stories

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Manufacturers of high-quality process equipment will claim that their machines are engineered to run trouble-free for decades—and this statement is not always an exaggeration.

Formulating pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSAs) presents a number of complex challenges. The adhesive must flow and set without activation from anything more than the pressure of a hand, remain permanently tacky, and exhibit a strong bond—often to a variety of substrates, such as wood, glass, or metal—for as long as the application requires or until the end user decides to remove it.

Wilden®, part of PSG®, a Dover company and a worldwide leader in air-operated double-diaphragm (AODD) pump technology, has celebrated 60 years in business. Jim Wilden began the company in a walnut grove in San Bernardino County, Calif., in 1955.

Global consumption of coatings, adhesives, sealants and inks (CASI) was 54.1 million tons in 2014, worth $182.6 billion, according to Kusumgar, Nerlfi & Growney. Volume growth is forecast at a 5% annual rate, with coatings, adhesives and sealants matching the overall growth, but inks trailing at only 2% per year.

Heraeus recently announced that, in collaboration with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), it has developed an improved mass-manufacturing process for its Clevios™-based films used in touch panels and sensors for a variety of electronics devices. This process will reportedly enable companies to use Clevios-based films to produce touchscreens with greater functionality, including the ability to be flexible, curved, 3-D or wearable.

Throughout my more than two-decade tenure as an executive coach and vice president in corporate America, I have seen millions of dollars senselessly lost due to ineffective communication.

Introduced in 1960, ultraviolet (UV) curable ink has resulted in increased automation, particularly in the manufacturing sector. Originally, water- and solvent-based inks were used for flexographic printing, textile printing, screen printing, and more.

Demand for converted flexible packaging in the U.S. is projected to increase 3.3% annually to $20.7 billion in 2019. Although advances will decelerate from the pace of the past decade, converted flexible packaging will remain a growth area in both food and nonfood applications due to the inherent cost and performance advantages of lightweight bags and pouches.

The Internet of Everything, cloud computing/big data and 3D printing are three of the technologies most likely to transform the world during the next five years, according to IHS Technology.

Light-curing adhesives are essential in many industries because they speed up the production process. Many applications in the optoelectronics and automotive industries, such as cameras, electronics displays, and LEDs and sensors, wouldn’t be possible without the use of these types of adhesives.