Adhesive and Sealant Council News

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On-line Learning Now Available On-demand
AAMA Releases Voluntary Specifications and Test Methods for Sealants
Learn How to Make Polyurethanes Work for Your Projects
Real-time Industry News and Practical Applications

In the Field

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"A Smart Balance Between Sustainability and Cost Savings"
"PennDOT Takes Special Approach in Paving Erie I-79 Bridges"
"Photovoltaic Cells Evolve With Pressure-Sensitive Adhesives"
"Turning 30, an Office Product Works at Home"

In the Lab

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"Crucial Milestone in Quest for Lifelong Joint Replacement Devices"
"High-Tech 'Band-Aids' Call Doctors"
"Mechanical Regulation of Cell Substrates Effects Stem Cell Development, Adhesion"
"New Findings Promising for 'Transformation Optics,' Cloaking"

General Engineering

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"Once a Leader, U.S. Lags in College Degrees"
"Where the Engineering Jobs Are"

Missed a recent webinar? Here’s good news. Webinars are now available on-demand at a reduced price. Topics include the popular Adhesives 101 series, Adhesive and Sealant Use in Wind Generation Technology and the High Performance Roofing series. Each session includes a copy of the presentation slides and a link to the audio, including the question and answer period. Take advantage of Adhesives.org’s webinar on-demand program today. Education on your terms...click here to learn more.
The American Architectural Manufacturers Association (AAMA) recently published AAMA 800-10—Voluntary Specifications and Test Methods for Sealants. This document is an update to the previous version (AAMA 800-08) and will help users evaluate the performance of sealants, tapes and compounds as related to air infiltration and water leakage in window and similar installations. Sections of AAMA 800-08 are referenced in ASTM E2112-07, Standard Practice for Installation of Exterior Windows, Doors and Skylights. To learn more, visit www.aamanet.org.
Polyurethanes are used in a wide variety of applications across multiple market segments. If you specify or design projects that contain polyurethanes or your company uses polyurethane adhesives and sealants, consider enhancing your knowledge by attending the Polyurethanes Short Course. Offered October 3 and 4 in Covington, Kentucky (just outside Cincinnati), the interactive course will feature leading experts who will cover topics that include the basics of polyurethanes (for both adhesive and sealant applications), fundamentals of adhesion, physical testing, and various polyurethane technologies. Comprehensive polyurethane information can help improve your future projects. Click here for complete details and to register.
Follow @ASCouncil on Twitter to receive global examples of adhesives and sealants in practical applications, issues and advancements in sustainability, adhesive and sealant trends in consumer markets and general industry news. The ASC currently follows several bloggers and thought leaders from various industries where adhesives and sealants are used (e.g., packaging) as well as ASC member companies. @ASCouncil provides our Twitter followers access to real-time, useful information. Sign up today and share @ASCouncil with your colleagues.

In the Field

A Smart Balance Between Sustainability and Cost Savings
Greener Package (08/10/10) Mohan, Anne Marie

GFA Brands, the company behind the Smart Balance brand of food products, has asked its contract manufacturers to replace corrugated cases with Delkor Spot-Pak Shrink Shippers to achieve sustainable packaging while at the same time lower costs. At Ventura Packaging's Ontario facility, the Spot-Pak system involves a four-station mechanism. Before flat corrugated pads arrive at the second station, a pattern of adhesive is applied to each flat bank, while tubs of buttery spread are placed on the adhesive in the second station. "Each tub gets four spots of adhesive," says GFA's David Deaton. "It's a patented Delkor adhesive that sets quickly and releases quickly. So it bonds to the corrugated pad and to the bottom of the polypropylene tub, but in a very short time the bond releases from the tub. The temporary adhesive bond only remains in place long enough to stabilize the cups on the corrugated pad until after the shrink film is applied and shrunk down tight. At that point, the adhesive releases from the tub so that when the unit gets to the retail outlet, the stocking clerk can remove the shrink film and pull the tubs from the pads quickly and cleanly with no resistance at all."
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PennDOT Takes Special Approach in Paving Erie I-79 Bridges
Erie Times-News (PA) (07/29/10) Hahn, Tim

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is adding new life and improving the traction of a bridge along Interstate 79 over railroad tracks by deploying a thin layer of epoxy and flint chips. Contractors recently applied an epoxy overlay to the northbound side of the bridge on 1-79, and the entire span will soon be completed. The work is part of a $5.9 million resurfacing project. The unique process, costing about $5 a square foot, roughly the same as placing a few inches of asphalt, features a thinner course that is designed to better protect the road's subsurface, according to PennDOT District 1-0 bridge engineer Bill Koller. The epoxy overlay process involves blasting a concrete surface like a bridge deck with small steel shot, coating it with a thin layer of epoxy, and then covering that with "angular aggregate." The aggregate is small, jagged pieces of flint that, when applied, provides better skid resistance, according to Killer. The flint chips stick up to allow a layer of salt and water to stay on the bridge surface to prevent freezing in the winter. The three-eighths of an inch thick layer of epoxy overlay is impermeable, helping to protect the concrete deck from salt and water, extending the lifespan of the bridge significantly. "To put a new bridge deck on is $1,500 to $1,600 a foot. The expense, let alone the traffic problems (from having to replace the bridges), is big-time," says Koller. "So we feel it's a really good investment." PennDOT has used the epoxy overlay on other projects, including parts of Routes 8, 19 and 97.
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Photovoltaic Cells Evolve With Pressure-Sensitive Adhesives
Today's Energy Solutions (07/10)

As photovoltaic (PV) cell technology transitions from amorphous and crystalline silicon forms to thin film technologies, PV makers must contend with a wealth of bonding and manufacturing process challenges, and pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSAs) are emerging as a viable option. Modern PSAs are refined polymer formulations that support reliable bonds with added functionality that augments the capabilities of a customer's end product, while simplifying their manufacturing processes. PSAs provide a controlled thickness layer of adhesive that offers instant tackiness at room temperature and only needs suitable lamination processes for application during assembly. PSA tapes offer clean application, easy handling, reduced exposure to hazardous chemicals, and no need for cold storage. When speed of assembly is paramount, film-based PSAs are frequently embedded into manufacturing processes to supplant liquid epoxy adhesives because they offer a very clean and flexible delivery format. PSAs' flexible, conformable format make them an appealing bonding option to builders of thin film PV modules because they remove local stresses common to other bonding methods, thereby extending the product life span of a cell. PV product designers should not only consider the characteristics of outgassing, but also choose an adhesive that maintains chemical inertia and offers long-term stability when exposed to high temperatures and direct sunlight. Electrically conductive PSAs for electrical interconnections between cells are one of the most versatile adhesive technologies used in the electronic sector that can work to PV makers' advantage. They should be considered a viable substitute to soldering, providing a thin, flexible bond line in a continuous roll format to streamline the manufacturing process.
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Turning 30, an Office Product Works at Home
New York Times (07/27/10) Newman, Andrew Adam

As part of the 30th anniversary of Post-it Notes, the brand is working to emphasize nonoffice uses for its products, including a billboard in Grand Central Terminal consisting of more than 100,000 Post-it Notes. "The product has found its way into homes through the office channel," says William Smith, vice president for the office supply division at 3M, the parent company behind Post-it Notes. The company declined to disclose its annual revenue from Post-it, but its consumer products and office division, featuring brands like Post-it, Scotch Magic Tape, and Scotch-Brite scouring sponges, posted revenue of $3.57 billion in 2009, according to public financial filings. Post-it spent $2.8 million on advertising in 2009, less than a third of its 2008 level of $8.6 million. In 1967, 3M scientist Spencer Silver invented a glue with a slightly granular surface that prevents complete adhesion, but the company could not find a use of the weak adhesive. In the early 1970s, the company released the Post-it Bulletin Board, which was coated in the glue so workers could attach papers, but the board also attracted dust. Then Art Fry, another 3M scientist, became tired of the slips of paper he used as bookmarks falling out, so he attached some of the adhesives, which evolved into the Post-it. Now, more than 1,000 Post-it products are sold in 150 companies. The products have evolved into labels with full adhesive backs, recycled pads with a plant-based adhesive, and notes specially designed to withstand gravity and stay attached to surfaces like computers and doors.
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In the Lab

Crucial Milestone in Quest for Lifelong Joint Replacement Devices
Newswise (08/09/10)

Joint replacement devices that last a lifetime are closer to reality thanks to recent breakthroughs involving specialized nanodiamonds. Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, armed with funding from the National Institutes of Health, have worked to refine a process to adhere a self-designed coating consisting of nanodiamonds to cobalt chromium, the metal most commonly used in joint replacement devices. The nanodiamond coating is tough, yet smooth. Once adhered to the metals of a joint implant device, it is intended to last for the life of the device while reducing friction and saving wear and tear on the joint replacement’s moving parts.
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High-Tech 'Band-Aids' Call Doctors
NPR Online (07/30/10) Whitney, Eric

The so-called smart Band-Aid, a new generation of wireless medical sensors mounted on adhesive strips, can call a doctor and transmit any kind of physiological information when it detects a problem. This kind of technology could help save money and a lot of lives, but it is so new that federal regulators are struggling to determine exactly what kind of rules are necessary to keep the public safe. The technology builds on more than a decade of refining the practice of "remote monitoring," or when health care providers give patients easy-to-use home diagnostic equipment that connects to a network. For example, a smart blood pressure cuff can automatically inflate and take a patient's blood pressure, and then automatically send that information to the patient's physician, helping the physician monitor the patient and adjust medication as needed. Remote monitoring is positioned to become far more common thanks to a new generation of tiny sensors that can be worn by patients using an adhesive strip about the size of a large Band-Aid. These sensors could measure electrocardiogram, or heart rhythm, respiratory rate, and temperature of patients. Silicon Valley start-up company, Proteus Biomedical, is developing minuscule microchips that could be embedded in pills, and signal one of the smart Band-Aids when it passes by the sensor, alerting a physician or caregiver that the patient remembered to take his or her pill. This type of technology does concern some people, which is why the Federal Communications Commission and the Food and Drug Administration are working together on new rules for the wireless medical industry.
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Mechanical Regulation of Cell Substrates Effects Stem Cell Development, Adhesion
EurekAlert (08/01/10) Reese, Jordan

A system to control the flexibility of the substrate surfaces on which cells are cultured without changing the surface properties has been developed by bioengineers at the University of Pennsylvania. Researchers generated a library of micromolded, hexagonally spaced elastomeric micropost arrays on which they grew cells, and the system enabled engineers to modulate the rigidity and flexibility of the substrate surface without changing the adhesive or other material surface properties that could impact cell growth. Post height dictated the degree to which a post would bend in response to a cell's horizontal traction force, and the system permitted researchers to map cell traction forces to individual focal adhesions and spatially measure sub-cellular distributions of focal-adhesion area, traction force, and focal-adhesion stress. The research showed that post height determined the flexibility of the surface substrate, which consequently affected cell morphology, leading to divergences in focal adhesions, cytoskeletal contractility, and stem-cell differentiation.
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New Findings Promising for 'Transformation Optics,' Cloaking
Media Newswire (08/09/10) Venere, Emil

A team of Purdue University researchers has overcome a basic hindrance in using new "metamaterials" for significant innovations in optical technologies. Metamaterials have long been deemed impractical for optical devices because too much light is absorbed by metals such as gold and silver within the metamaterials. The Purdue team crafted a material composed of a fishnet-like film containing holes about 100 nanometers in diameter and repeating layers of silver and aluminum oxide. The researchers etched away a portion of the aluminum oxide between silver layers and replaced it with a "gain medium" formed by a colored dye capable of amplifying light. Purdue professor Vladimir M. Shalaev says manufacturing the material constituted a major challenge. The researchers had to develop a method for depositing just the right amount of dye blended with an epoxy between the silver layers of the holed film. "You can't deposit too much dye and epoxy, which have a positive refractive index, but only a thin layer about 50 nanometers thick, or you lose the negative refraction," notes Shalaev.
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General Engineering

Once a Leader, U.S. Lags in College Degrees
New York Times (07/23/10) Lewin, Tamar

The gap between U.S. college graduates and those in other nations is widening, according to the College Board. The United States now ranks 12th among 36 developed nations in terms of the number of 25- to 34-year-olds with college degrees. Experts suggest that government and education officials work to improve education from preschool through higher education to ensure students and the workforce remain globally competitive. Only about 40% of young U.S. adults had associate's degrees in 2007, while approximately 56% of young Canadians had at least an associate's degree. Only 30% of young adult African-Americans in the U.S., and less than 20% of Latinos in that age group, have an associate’s degree or higher. Among the recommendations to improve K-12 education are improvements to high school and middle school college counseling, the creation of more state-funded preschool and dropout prevention programs, and an alignment of curriculum standards.
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Where the Engineering Jobs Are
IEEE Spectrum (07/01/10) Patel, Prachi

Job prospects for engineers this year have improved over last year, and new graduates accounted for eight of the 10 highest-paid degrees in the United States. Although in 2009 the average college graduate received a lower starting wage than in 2008, computer science majors saw a nearly 5 percent increase in salary to $60,526, according to the latest salary report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that jobs for engineers will grow much faster than the average for other occupations over the next eight years. Employment in industries such as aerospace, defense, and energy remain strong, and there is a shortage in the power and energy sector, says IEEE-USA past president Gordon Day. "In areas like renewable energy and the smart grid, demand has increased faster than students can be educated," Day says.
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