Welcome back to Adhesion Matters. Adhesives have quietly evolved from simple bonders into indispensable, high-performance materials in PCB manufacturing—critical for thermal management, electrical performance, and environmental resilience. In this episode, we explore how adhesives empower modern electronics: enabling miniaturization, supporting flexible and high-density circuits (think HDI and flex PCBs), and meeting rising demands in consumer tech and electric vehicles.

You’ll discover how specialized adhesive families—epoxies, acrylics, silicones, polyamides, polyurethanes—each offer unique strengths, from rigidity and heat-resistance to flexibility, reworkability, and flame protection. Hear how engineers tailor selections based on criteria like thermal conductivity, environmental durability, and the ability to withstand mechanical or thermal stress over time.

Learn about real-world applications across the PCB manufacturing spectrum: surface mount adhesive placement, underfills, die attaches, conformal coatings, potting compounds, encapsulants, and even thermal interface materials that control heat in EV power systems.

Finally, we look ahead at the future of adhesive innovation: extreme miniaturization, advanced thermal management for EVs, and a push for eco-friendlier, halogen-free, low-toxicity formulations.

In this episode of Adhesion Matters, we shine a light on one of aviation’s unsung heroes: adhesives. These advanced chemical formulations are increasingly replacing rivets and bolts in aircraft and spacecraft—but only when handled with meticulous quality control.

We explore why AS 9120 / EN 9120—a specialized quality management standard tailored for aerospace distributors—is critical to maintaining the integrity, traceability, and reliability of adhesives throughout the supply chain. From temperature- and humidity-controlled storage to rigorous batch tracking and documentation, this certification serves as more than compliance—it’s a strategic safeguard against costly failures and counterfeit risks.

We also discuss the high-stakes consequences of lapses in this chain, and how certification not only protects safety but also boosts operational efficiency, global market access, and business reputation. Tune in to discover how adhesive distributors serve as technical gatekeepers in aerospace's hidden yet vital quality ecosystem.

In this episode of Adhesion Matters, we explore the urgent transition toward PFAS-free adhesives—a shift driven by environmental concerns, strict regulations, and growing public awareness.

What You’ll Learn:

• PFAS: The 'Forever Chemicals' You Don’t Want in Your Glue
  Once valued for exceptional resistance to water, heat, and chemicals, PFAS compounds are now under intense scrutiny for their persistence in the environment and potential health risks.
• From Regulation to Reform—A Global Push
  Governments around the world are introducing tough restrictions and bans, targeting PFAS in adhesives and sealants while setting ambitious timelines for compliance.
• Innovation Under Pressure
  Leading adhesive manufacturers are racing to engineer PFAS-free alternatives that match or exceed the performance of their predecessors, without sacrificing durability or safety.
• Navigating a Sticky Transition
  Shifting to PFAS-free solutions involves more than new chemistry—it requires rethinking supply chains, validating performance, and ensuring customers’ trust in the finished product.

Why It Matters:

Adhesives may be invisible in the final product, but the chemistry behind them has far-reaching consequences for health, safety, and the planet. This episode offers a clear roadmap for making the move to PFAS-free bonding solutions—without compromising on performance.

In this episode of Adhesion Matters, we power up to explore adhesive bonding in wind turbine blades—unpacking the engineering breakthroughs, production hurdles, and future trends that are shaping blades for a sustainable energy future.

What You'll Learn:

• The Invisible Backbone of Blades
  Adhesives do far more than just ‘stick’—they bond complex components like shell halves and shear webs in massive blades (50–80 meters long), delivering structural integrity under extreme conditions.
• Fast-Curing, High-Performance Chemistry
  From room-temperature, snap-cure methacrylates to toughened epoxies built for fatigue resistance and fast production cycles, learn how adhesives enable stronger, quicker, and more efficient manufacturing.
• Design Meets Sustainability
  Emerging adhesives are being engineered to support modular blade designs and recyclability, opening pathways for de-bond-on-demand systems and circular wind-energy manufacturing.
• Avoiding Bond Failures
  From surface cleanliness and sag-resistant formulations to cure profiles, improper application can undermine safety—and even lead to catastrophic blade failure. Quality control is more than a checklist—it’s mission critical.
• Future Trends on the Horizon
  Learn how industry-shaping factors—like raw material supply pressures, demand for recyclable blades, and evolving blade geometries—are driving the next wave of adhesive innovation.

Whether you're interested in materials science, clean energy technologies, or industrial innovation, this episode reveals how adhesives—often overlooked—are foundational to the wind turbines powering our sustainable future.

What if the future of electric vehicles, green buildings, even everyday packaging rested on something as deceptively simple as glue? In this episode of Adhesion Matters, we dive into the world of the Adhesive and Sealant Council (ASC)—the influential North American trade association quietly driving innovation, education, advocacy, and sustainability across the adhesives industry.

What You’ll Discover:

• The Industry Backbone
  Founded in 1958, ASC represents over 75% of the U.S. adhesive and sealant value chain. Its multi-stakeholder membership includes manufacturers, material suppliers, equipment makers, and technical consultants—amplifying its industry-wide influence.
• Mission with Momentum
  More than an association, ASC accelerates growth through career education, collaborative innovation, shared market intelligence, and a unified voice that strengthens member businesses across dynamic sectors like automotive, packaging, and infrastructure.
• Strategic Priorities That Stick
  ASC’s long-range plan centers on three pillars:
  1. Advocacy – shaping policy and regulation across chemical safety, VOCs, PFAS, and beyond.
  2. End-User Engagement – aligning adhesives with evolving needs in EVs, construction, and packaging.
  3. Sustainability – championing greener chemistry, circular systems, and eco-minded innovation.
• Real-World Influence
  From awarding breakthrough technologies like fast-bonding, low-VOC adhesives, to enabling “debond-on-demand” for future recyclability, ASC actively drives the industry toward a smarter, cleaner future.
• Building the Industry's Workforce
  The ASC Training Academy is equipping professionals with deep adhesive knowledge—empowering over 800 graduates to lead within the sector through technical certifications and hands-on learning.
• Data, Community & Resilience
  ASC delivers essential market intelligence with annual reports, insight-packed events, peer networks, and scholarship programs that cultivate knowledge-sharing and prepare the industry for geopolitical or supply-chain shocks.

Why It Matters:

ACS isn’t just about glue—it’s the architect behind the materials quietly enabling modern life. From EVs and sustainable architecture to next-gen packaging, adhesives powered by ASC’s leadership are shaping the invisible infrastructure of our future.

Welcome back to Adhesion Matters. Ever wondered if we could engineer glue so powerful it works underwater and endures tides? This episode dives into a wild, near-futuristic breakthrough that merges big data, bio-inspired chemistry, and machine learning to create a glue that’s practically unstoppable.

What you’ll discover:

• Evolution as a data source
  Imagine using sequences from adhesive proteins found in bacteria, fungi—even viruses! The team mined over 24,000 such sequences across the tree of life to spot the common motifs that make things sticky, even when wet.
• From nature to lab—180 new glues in one go
  The researchers used random copolymer chemistry to recreate the identified protein patterns, synthesizing 180 unique hydrogels. Many outperformed the best-known natural adhesives for underwater strength.
• A never-ending improvement loop via AI
  Machine learning (Gaussian processes, random forests, Bayesian optimization) then took the stage—designing glue #2.0. Newly predicted formulations beat the original set, hitting underwater bond strengths beyond 1 MPa. That’s strong enough to hold a rubber duck against crashing tides—for a year.
• Real-world test: Pond to pipe
  In one demo, the hydrogel instantly patched a 20 mm pipe hole, preventing leaks for months. The power of inspiration meets real engineering potential.

Why this matters (and why it’s fascinating)

• Bridging disciplines — Combining bioinformatics, polymer chemistry, and AI to engineer new materials.
• Applications across fields — From marine repair to surgical adhesives, wearable devices to soft robotics.
• Storytelling gold — From protein sequence mines to ML-driven material wizardry, this is innovation you can hear.

Whether you geek out over AI, adhesives, materials innovation, or just love a great story of nature + tech, this episode will stick with you.

Have you ever paused to think about what holds those tiny, life-saving gadgets in place—like the adhesive on your wearable monitor or the seal inside a stent? In this episode, Adhesion Matters unpacks the quietly powerful role that adhesives play in medical device innovation.

Why This Episode Is Essential Listening

• Beyond “Just Glue”
  Modern medical-grade adhesives are highly engineered polymers—not just sticky substances. They're replacing screws, welding, and mechanical fasteners by evenly distributing stress, enhancing device durability, and even preventing corrosion in critical healthcare settings.
• Safety First: Biocompatibility & Sterilization
  Discover how adhesives must meet grueling regulatory benchmarks like USP Class VI and ISO 10993. Learn what it takes to survive repeated sterilization—whether by gamma, ETO, steam, or harsh chemicals—without degrading, while staying non-toxic and reliable across extreme temperatures.
• Material Chemistry, Tailored for Medical Applications
  • Epoxies: Built for strength and longevity—perfect for sealing, potting, and reusable devices that stand up to sterilization.
  • Light-Cure Adhesives: UV/LED systems that cure in seconds—often with fluorescent additives for 100% automated production inspection.
  • Cyanoacrylates (Instant Glues): Now impact-resistant and sterile-ready, ideal for needle hubs and fast assembly.
  • Polyurethanes & Silicones: Key for flexible, biocompatible bonds—critical in wearables, wound care, and devices on the move.
  • PSAs: Tailored for wearables like patches and sensors—non-irritating but high-performance, often tweaked for easy removal.
  • Specialized Formulations: Conductive, thermal, or radiopaque adhesives that do more than bond—they carry signals, dissipate heat, or show up clearly in medical imaging.
• Pressing Industry Challenges & the Adhesive Response
  • Regulatory Complexity & Quality Control: Adhesive suppliers now deliver pre-tested, standards-compliant materials and predictive modeling to speed approvals.
  • Supply Chain Resilience: From economic pressures to global disruptions, adhesives are increasingly about dependable partnerships—not just products.
  • Smart, Connected Healthcare Tech: Adhesives help integrate sensors, manage device heat, and drive next-gen wearable design.
  • Patient-Centric & Sustainable Design: Breathable, soft, eco-friendly adhesives are pushing the comfort and green credentials of medical devices forward.

In a word: adhesives are no longer afterthoughts—they’re foundational to modern healthcare innovation.

Takeaways

• If you're in medical device design, bring adhesive experts into the conversation early—don’t treat them as an afterthought.
• Consider adhesives not only for performance but for user comfort, device footprint, sterilization durability, and environmental impact.
• For adhesive makers: specialization, compliance, sustainability, and smart partnership are your keys to shaping the future of medical tech.

Ever watch a movie scene where a character rips off another face and thought, “How did they make that look so real?” In this episode, Adhesion Matters pulls back the curtain on the dazzling world of hyper-realistic silicone masks—think Mission: Impossible-level disguise magic.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Silicone: The Star of Cinematic Makeup
  Discover why silicone—thanks to its flexibility, strength, skin-like translucency, and safety—is the gold standard for on-screen character transformations, far outperforming older materials like latex or gelatin.
• From Concept to Seamless “Skin”
  We walk you through the meticulous multi-step process: design, life casting, sculpting (complete with feather-thin edges), molding (often multi-part for consistency), silicone casting (with de-gassing and color layering), and masterful finishing—featuring techniques like airbrushing, hair punching, and edge blending.
• Busting Hollywood Myths
  That rapid 3D-printed “mask change” you see in blockbuster films? It’s usually cinematic fantasy—while 3D scanning and digital tools assist the design stage, true mask-making is still a detailed, hands-on craft.
• Performance Meets Material Science
  The mask’s flexibility matters because actors aren’t just wearing one—they’re acting through it. Silicone must balance durability with responsiveness, ensuring the performer's expressions shine through, even as their character wears the mask.
• Zhermack's Behind-the-Scenes Role
  Zhermack isn't a household name, but they're crucial: their RTV-2 silicone resins and alginates are high-performance tools in this sophisticated prosthetics pipeline—from lifecasting molds to final mask production.

If you’re passionate about film, special effects, materials engineering, or the artistry that powers cinematic illusion, this episode is your backstage access to modern movie magic—where chemistry meets character.