Adhesives & Sealants: To hold and seal tight

• Evonik offers a broad range of products for the adhesives and sealants industry
• Resource efficiency and lightweight construction as essential growth drivers
• Pooled expert knowledge from different business lines

Adhesives and sealants are indispensable – whether in construction or transportation, in the aerospace industry, in the automobile industry, or in shipbuilding. Among other things, they make a decisive contribution toward lightweight construction. And that is becoming more and more important at a time in which the focus is increasingly on resource efficiency. After all, what weighs less takes less energy to move.

Evonik Industries, one of the world market leaders in specialty chemicals, offers a broad range of products for the adhesives and sealants industry, including system solutions for lightweight construction. For example, they increase efficiency and reduce costs in the production of cars or rotor blades for wind power systems.

The products of the specialty chemical provider are marked by great versatility. For instance, POLYVEST® HT is used not only in the making of window seals, but also in the production of adhesives. POLYVEST® HT is a hydroxyl-terminated liquid polybutadiene (HTPB) and ensures good adhesion on glass and aluminum, high flexibility even at low temperatures, and low gas and water vapor permeability. The demand for HTPB has risen steadily over the past 40 years, particularly due to the trend toward lightweight construction and resource efficiency. For the production of POLYVEST® HT, Evonik therefore started up a new HTPB plant at the end of 2014 with an annual production capacity of several thousand metric tons. The plant is located in Marl in the northern Ruhr area—an investment close to its customers, because most of the markets for HTPB are in Europe.

Furthermore, Evonik also offers methacrylate monomers under the brand name VISIOMER® as an important raw material for adhesives and sealants. They are used in the construction of cars and boats. Furthermore, they are suitable components for pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSA) and anaerobic adhesives. VISIOMER® offers adhesive and sealant formulators a versatile toolbox for tuning their adhesive formulations to optimize adhesion and cohesion properties.

In addition, under the Dynasylan® brand, Evonik markets functional silanes for the widest variety of applications in the adhesives and sealants industry. They act as adhesion promoters, crosslinking agents - i.e. for silicones or polyurethanes, as drying agents, or reinforcers.

Furthermore, numerous systems can benefit from the technical advantages and improvements that may be achieved with Evonik's large selection of AEROSIL® fumed silica grades, which have been specially developed for the adhesives and sealants industry.

Evonik is one of the leading manufacturers of raw materials, additives and system solutions in the adhesives and sealants industry. To develop adhesives and sealants, the company relies on a team of specialists: The Evonik Adhesives & Sealants Industry Team (EAST) utilizes the knowledge of experts from various business lines in the entire company.