Adhesives & Sealants Industry Top Stories

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Adhesives and sealants are an essential component of every equipment maintenance and reliability plan. With rapidly developing technologies and products, businesses need to stay on top of these trends. When implemented correctly, adhesives and sealants can play a critical role in improving equipment reliability and lowering maintenance and operational costs.

The ability to efficiently and accurately dispense adhesives, sealants, and other materials is absolutely vital in assembly operations. Companies that rely on manual methods run into issues with operator error, slow speeds, excessive waste, and other problems.

Adhesives and sealants are critical tools for building projects and on the job site. As builders look for better sealant and adhesive solutions for their remodeling and construction projects, several new industry product trends are emerging.

The past 20 years have seen the increasing use of concrete sealers in the construction industry. Sealers are applied to concrete primarily to keep water and water-soluble compounds from entering the concrete through the surface pores.

Each year, the debris produced during construction—and in particular, building demolition—represents more than 90% of the total construction and demolition debris generated and sent to landfills in the U.S. That equates to approximately 145 million tons of debris.

The methods for dispensing adhesives, epoxies, grease, silicone, oils, sealants, and a multitude of other assembly fluids cover a wide spectrum of techniques—from manual applications like squeeze bottles, toothpicks, and hand-plunger syringes to semi-automated tabletop dispensing robots. Each dispensing method presents unique challenges as manufacturers attempt to scale the sophistication of their fluid dispensing processes to meet requirements for quality, volume throughput, and cost efficiency.

Brands have long relied on their products’ packaging to draw the consumers’ eye and entice them to consider a purchase. But packaging has evolved beyond eye-catching graphics to encompass so much more, particularly as consumers continue to explore “green” products and services with the goal of helping to address climate change.

The shift from brick-and-mortar to digital shopping had been under way for some time when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Since 2017, ecommerce revenues have risen from an estimated $1.4 trillion to $2.4 trillion, or about 2.7% of global output.