This month we had the privilege of visiting Franklin International’s headquarters in Columbus, OH, just outside of our magazine’s offices in Powell. Franklin has recently restructured its Industrial Division to becoming Franklin Adhesives & Polymers. In addition to a new name, the rebranding includes a logo and color-coded system to differentiate products for the division’s three primary markets. Larry Owen has been promoted to senior vice president of Franklin Adhesives and Polymers, and will lead the continued domestic and global growth of the division.

We sat down with Owen and discussed the future as he sees it for the company. In his new role, he will lead the continued domestic and global growth of the division, which provides assembly glues, edge and face glues, laminating glues, veneering, and finger-jointing glues, as well as pressure-sensitive adhesives for office-products and food-packaging markets.

Owen said his first priority is making sure that each staff member is in the best-fitting position for them. “Any changes that would be made in the short term would likely be moving people into the right positions that meet our needs in this point in time.”

Find out more about the restructuring and Owen’s vision in the article “A New Face, A New Identity.”

Also in this issue is coverage of high-tech adhesive and sealant applications. Drop-on-demand inkjet, or Piezo DOD – a technology traditionally associated with wide-format printing  – is quickly finding acceptance on the materials-deposition scene as a viable and often valuable manufacturing method.

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Polyset Co. have developed a new, inexpensive, quick-drying polymer that could lead to dramatic cost savings and efficiency gains in semiconductor manufacturing and computer chip packaging. The new material, called polyset epoxy siloxane (PES), should also enable a new generation of lower-cost, on-chip nanoimprinting lithography technology, according to the researchers. Details can be found here.

An article from Henkel provides an update on the latest news about structural adhesive technology – durable, tough formulations that withstand shock and impact, and bear heavy loads.

And click here to find out how a perfluoroelastomer sealing compound is helping Samsung to manufacture plasma display panels.