Author: Technical

Things have been changing over the last few years at Structural Adhesives Ltd. The emphasis of the business has shifted and we’re focussing more and more on sustainability and providing solutions for the future. Such solutions can only be produced by innovation and development and there are numerous tools that we as chemists use to convert an innovative idea into a tried and tested product. For us these ‘tools’ are primarily in the form of pieces of equipment for testing the properties and performance of development products.

Last month I was asked by our MD to create a Wishlist of lab equipment. She must have seen my eyes light up, it was like Christmas had come early. I immediately set to scouring the internet for pieces of kit to play with in the manner of a child circling toys in the Argos catalogue. Of course, not everything on my initial list was viable- but this was part of the point of the task. By closely evaluating the list we have identified a number of key pieces of equipment that could make a massive difference to the company and greatly increase our development output.

Our lab is expanding in both area and capability and we hope, in the not-so-distant future, personnel too.  This will enable us to provide better solutions faster for our customers. It will also broaden the type of development services we can provide and enable us to establish more collaborative projects which is becoming a huge focus for us.

The architect is due onsite shortly to assess the space for the new lab and then things can really get underway. Keep tuned for further updates on this exciting new venture for Structural Adhesives Ltd.

In primary school, as I embarked on the long road that eventually led to my career in chemistry, one of the first things I recall being taught was about the importance of good scientific practice and avoiding bias. As I progressed through school, university and into industry I have become increasingly aware that completely removing bias, which seemed simple to me at that early age, is actually quite complicated.

Recently I have been thinking more deeply about bias in science and the wide effect this can have on industry and society. For example, during the current coronavirus situation, it was widely reported by the media that people who had received the Astra-Zeneca vaccine were developing blood clots.  Often the claims were supported by evidence such as ‘X in 100,000 people who had the AstraZeneca vaccine developed a blot clot’. This caused the public to draw conclusions about the safety of the vaccine. Although these conclusions were drawn from data, this data did not represent the whole picture, this is something we might refer to as sampling bias. Once data was published about the rate of blood clot development in unvaccinated people, people who had covid and people who took other commonly used medicines, this gave a different picture and a different conclusion was drawn by many people. This demonstrates the importance of contextual data.

Another situation has arisen pertaining to the adhesives industry in particular, which again has caused me to think about contextual data and bias. Articles have been published about adhesively bonded brick slips falling from height. These describe several case studies and some are asking for people to provide information about other cases. Again, although there is scientific data within the articles, I find myself drawing similarities between this and the above example of data on coronavirus vaccines. I worry that unless there is contextual data about failures of mechanically fixed brick slips, or any other materials at height, available alongside such articles that any conclusions drawn will be based on a skewed subset of data. The publishers actively asking for people to supply additional data already appear to have drawn the hypothesis that adhesively bonded brick slips are prone to failure. I believe this also leaves the research vulnerable to what is known as confirmation bias, are they are looking for data subjectively and analysing it in such a way as to support a hypothesis they already believe to be true.

As part of a company that develops and manufactures adhesives, I am acutely aware of the damage such articles could have on the industry. This has even further ingrained in my mind the importance of all scientific articles being vigorously assessed to ensure that what is published is fully representative of the entire picture and that bias is limited to a minimum so that conclusions drawn will be astute and will benefit societal safety and industrial prosperity. With that being said, we would call for the safety of all materials above 2 storey’s in height that have the potential fail to be impartially assessed to the same testing standards.

It is usual in the construction industry to match the colour of the adhesive or coating to masonry in applications such as cut and bond bricks and cladding.  In the past this has never been a problem. Here at Structural Adhesives Ltd we have always been happy to supply coloured products or provide colours for customers to tint the products themselves. We even offer a colour matching service for several of our products.

However, in some cases this is not an option due to strict regulations. For example, for residential buildings, any materials used above 18 m must be A1 or A2-s1d0 fire rated. To obtain this fire rating a number of fire tests must be carried out on the material. Any change to the formulation of the product, even a very small change such as the addition of a minute amount of pigment, would render the testing invalid. Therefore, it is not possible to change the colour of an A2-s1d0 rated product such as our S-2825FRE adhesive, without re-doing all of the fire tests, the cost of which is multiple thousands of pounds.

When developing S-2825FRE Structural Adhesives Ltd chose the buff colour due to the large number of customers using buff and light-coloured brick slips. We also wanted to make the colours of the part 1 and part 2 of the product obviously different to provide easy identification of thorough mixing. However, if a customer had a real need for an A2-s1d0 adhesive in a different colour, Structural Adhesives Ltd are very confident they would be able to supply this providing the customer were willing to organise and finance the required retesting.

Whilst there are stark differences between the work being carried out at universities and by businesses there is a common theme that will forever link them together; preparation for the future. Both academia and industry are striving for solutions to the real-world problems that have a significant impact on us all. Nonetheless, there is a difference in culture between the two and this leads to different approaches to tackling these issues.

Academics use public money to push the boundaries of knowledge and investigate new technologies. Often this gives academia the opportunity to work on more ‘blue sky’ research that is not usually available to industry as business directors need a quicker return-on-investment. Also, academics apply a wide variety of methodologies to problem solving and sometimes these have practical obstacles that prevent or impede commercialisation due to high costs, long processing times or low yields etc. This is where we see the benefits of collaboration.

Bringing together people from academia and industry with different but complimentary expertise and knowledge can lead to much faster product development and development of products better suited to the exact needs of the industry. Academics bring knowledge and results from cutting edge research and industry provides insight into consumer needs/behaviour, practical viability and scale up. Also sharing of facilities and resources can help reduce time and costs for both parties. Furthermore, connections made between university students and business profits everyone. Students gain valuable business experience and business establish a network of future innovators and leaders.  

Structural Adhesives Ltd have strong relationships with local universities Leicester, Loughborough and Nottingham and have collaborative projects in the pipeline. Structural Adhesives Ltd hope that collaborating with universities will support the company’s green agenda with projects focusing on sustainable adhesives and adhesives to aid with recyclability.