IEN: How are manufacturers using existing technologies in new ways?
Bachmann: As a manufacturer of UV curing adhesives, sealants, and coatings, we see customers and prospects come up with new applications every day for our products. Not only are our light curing resins being used as high performance adhesives, sealants, and coatings, but also for masking, laminating, flocking, and sound dampening applications and as formed-in-place-gaskets.
Two recent examples have seen our light curing products replace heat staking for the assembly of plastic film holders in one application and heat sealing of plastic medical waste disposal containers in another. This was quite a surprise to see a relatively high cost resin replace what might be thought of as a simple and inexpensive process. However, in both cases assembly time was dramatically reduced. The heat staking took several seconds where the UV process could run at more than 100 feet per minute. But more important, the UV resin improved the quality and appearance of the end product and provided the users with a major competitive advantage.
IEN: What are the major concerns facing this sector in the next few years?
Bachmann: Productivity. Offering a "better mouse trap" -- competitive products with a higher perceived value. Regulatory compliance with environmentally acceptable and "worker friendly" processes.
IEN: What innovations are in store for users?
Bachmann: From the resin side we see the following:
- Faster curing adhesives and coatings to meet J.I.T. demands.
- Resin technologies that are easy to automate to reduce labor content and off-line processes such as heating ovens and drying racks that tend to eat up plant space.
- Resins that reduce scrap and improve end product quality.
- Adhesives, sealants, and coatings technologies with an expanded range of properties. including viscosity, thermal range, moisture resistance, bond strength, and colors. Resins with indicators built in to respond to vision systems.
- Regulatory-compliant resins that are environmentally and worker friendly with no solvents or toxic ingredients.
- Resins with curing technologies that can start small and are easy to scale up and which will allow fast response to changing demands.
IEN: How are software, materials, and equipment being improved?
Bachmann: To speak for equipment and materials -- we see great improvements in dispensers so that resins of almost any viscosity can be placed precisely where they are needed in the correct amount. UV curing lamps which are needed to cure the very fast light curing adhesives are improving continuously. The range of intensity has broadened and knowledge of wavelengths for curing all kinds of light curing resins is increasing. More kinds of UV curing equipment are being developed to meet a very wide range of applications where this technology is being employed. Examples include spot/wand curing lamps used for curing tiny spots of adhesive for wire tacking, catheter and needle assembly, and coil terminating to name only a few; flood lamps in workstations to cure trays of parts or parts with large bond lines; and conveyors with lamps mounted on top for curing parts from 2 to 200 ft per minute.
IEN: Are we entering a new era of e-manufacturing?
Bachmann: Computer technology behind the precise placement and amount of adhesive dispensed is a step in this direction that we see. Also there are UV curing lamps available that provide computerized feedback of intensity that the lamp is emitting and warnings of when it drops below a predetermined level.
IEN: How will the drive toward lean manufacturing impact this sector?
Bachmann: Lean manufacturing will rely more and more on efficient methods to produce innovative products with the features needed to stay competitive. That means that the ability to make the right choices between what can be done electronically and what people can do best will count heavily in the increasingly tough arena of global competition.
New products will demand innovative design solutions and require that adhesives and fasteners do more, and do it better than ever before. We in the resin, and specifically the UV curing adhesive and equipment business know we need to provide high performance, creative and flexible solutions that work for both designers and manufacturers. When we are involved in the design phase, we can frequently contribute insight into how the specified resin can best be tailored to meet the desired manufacturing requirements.