Category: insights

This week, I have been entertained on my drive to work by a BBC Sounds podcast called Glued Up: The Sticky Story of Humanity. Mark Miodownik, a materials scientist, engineer, broadcaster and writer at University College London, narrates five 15 minute episodes charting the journey of human progress through the sticky substances that have shaped […]

Today we learned that the UK economy has escaped recession, albeit by the skin of its teeth, and… so far. I heard on the radio that the economy is “flatlining”, which has disturbing connotations if you are a cardiac surgeon, but just means here that the growth curve not going up or down. I visited […]

Let’s get started by talking about your application. This is a phrase you’ll see a lot around here, and it sums up our whole approach. We consider ourselves to be your adhesive-savvy team members, and we want to get stuck in to helping you create a product that you’re proud of, both in terms of […]

We fell upon on this article in The Sun today: Idiot Insulate Britain eco-mob using harmful superglue that’s TOXIC to environment to plaster themselves to roads. We are not habitual readers of this newspaper; perhaps this article is a good example why, as it is hyperbolic, hysterical, inaccurate and badly written. It does inspire us […]

A great article in Med-Tech Innovation News lists seven considerations for medical device design; it was written by Dan Purvis of Velentium, a company specialising in the design and manufacturing of therapeutic and diagnostic active medical devices. It’s worth reading the whole thing, but consideration number 5 caught our eye: Design with manufacturing in mind […]

An article in this week’s Electronics Weekly about the use of short-wave UV LED’s in the fight against Covid-19 contained this statement: “New international legislation which came into force in January 2020 means that mercury-based lamps are, with very few exceptions, no longer an option. The manufacture, import and export of mercury lamps is now […]

What makes a good adhesives partner? That’s a great question! We decided to answer it by getting a group of us together and thrashing it out. The results of our roundtable talk might surprise you. Please read the summary of our discussion, get some insight into the way we think, and see if you agree.

I was struck by an article today on the Industrial Technology website: European Manufacturing Breakthroughs Stifled by Overengineered Industrial Robots. The article quotes Torsten Christensen, partner and co-founder at ChangeForce, a Danish industrial consultancy firm. According to him, the most popular reason behind disappointing robotisation implementations is the complexity and over customisation of technologies installed.  […]

Selecting an adhesive One of the major considerations when specifying an adhesive is how quickly it will deliver return on investment (ROI), a metric that is affected by a variety of tangible and intangible factors. If you’ve ever tried to source an adhesive for your application, you probably realised quickly that there is no universally perfect […]

“The adhesive industry is the place to be for all the curious ones who want to deliver value!” One of our friends and colleagues, Robert Ignatzek, recently wrote this on LinkedIn. Robert is a 20 year veteran in the business, and an all round enthusiast for our sector. We responded to Robert, and he was […]

The best available option. That’s not the same as perfect. The best available option is always available. Perfect almost never is. Adhesive choice is always about compromise. Worthwhile debates: ultimate adhesive functionality versus process-ability the cost of the adhesive versus the cost of processing it the robustness of the adhesive versus rework-ability or end-of-life recycling The perfect […]

Kevin Kelly recently turned 68 years old. Amongst many achievements, he is a co-founder of Wired magazine, and was publisher and editor of the Whole Earth Catalog. He celebrated his birthday by giving us 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice. There are many gems of wisdom there, and I do encourage everyone to read them. Some […]

We recently launched our archytas series of robot integrations, which are robotic dispensing, UV curing and/or surface preparation systems custom-built to meet your application requirements. Understanding the idea behind the systems is simple enough, but what’s the idea behind the name? Archytas (ARK-it-ahs) was an Ancient Greek philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, statesman, and strategist. He is […]

In the past few weeks, we have seen many of our customers retool and/or increase production to meet the current needs of the NHS, the health industry and its users in the face of a global pandemic. In several cases, this has involved teaming up with other organisations to pool expertise and share resources. Even […]

We launched the What is your productivity potential? campaign to help manufacturers improve your productivity and become more competitive on a global scale. It highlights the ways that assembly companies can simplify processes, improve output and reduce waste. Currently, in Spring 2020, manufacturing companies are facing different kinds of challenges. Some are frantic, assembling ventilators, […]

Recently, when discussing the choice or specification of an adhesive (or coating or sealant), we said that “Simple statements rarely match complex reality.” There is a plethora of materials and a seemingly infinite number of assembly applications, and matching them up optimally requires a real understanding of a complex scenario, in which not every factor […]

Product data sheets (PDS) and specification documents are very useful when deciding what material or piece of equipment to consider for your new application. Without doubt, a survey of product datasheets for, say, an adhesive will allow you to narrow down the candidate list from many thousands to, hopefully, a handful. This selection can then […]

This Twitter post from James Wong caught my eye this morning. James is an ethnobotanist, a science presenter on the BBC and a New Scientist columnist. He is pragmatic and without hyperbole – and worth following if you are on Twitter and like reading myth-busting tweets about food, nutrition, and the environment. The resonance for […]

Improving Productivity by Increasing Output When we think about how to increase the productivity of an organisation, we often immediately jump to how to raise output. How can we make more of that widget, or a better version of the widget, within the constraints of our production space or other limited resources? Maybe the market […]

Picture credit Getty Images/Dennis Oulds This weekend, I listened to the recent Desert Island Discs episode featuring the tennis champion Billie Jean King. Not only did Billie Jean King win 39 Grand Slam tennis titles (12 in singles, 16 in women’s doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles), but also has been and remains a powerful […]

We recently completed a project to expand and refurbish the Technology Centre at our head office just north of Oxford. We have a comfortable meeting space with AV facilities, and a lab area with a wide range of equipment. Customers and colleagues are invited in to meet with us about their applications and challenges, evaluate […]