Seeking Structural Adhesives Technology

A SpecialChem client - a global chemical company - wants to acquire a technology in the area of structural adhesives. The desired technology should be an advanced technology where production and / or formulation know-how is essential, ideally patent protected.

The SpecialChem client is looking for a structural-adhesives technology that he could buy or license in order to penetrate this market for him. Based on its large and global marketing / production / sales capacity, the SpecialChem client is confident he could promote a differentiated technology to a next level of commercialization.

Ideally, the technology required by our client should have the potential to be sold to a few but big customers, e.g. automotive industry. The technology should be capable to be sold directly to the customers where the material is used; without any additional formulation step in between.

Structural adhesives definition:
Structural adhesives can be loosely defined as adhesive products that after curing become part of the structure of the finished product.

End-use markets for structural adhesives

• Industrial applications:
  • automotive: Car manufacturing, automotive components and repair applications
  • other land transportation: Commercial vans and trucks, buses and coaches, caravans and trailers, trains, agricultural vehicles and track vehicles
  • other transportation (Marine; Aerospace)
  • general Industrial: grouped the industrial sectors that are not mentioned in the other sections, like: brushes and rollers, sports equipment, general engineering, medical devices, striking tools, domestic appliances; electrical & electronic;
• Building & Construction applications:
• sandwich panels: sandwich panel bonding for use in building applications, caravans and refrigerated vehicles and containers

Main types of structural adhesives:
acrylic, anaerobic, cyanoacrylate, epoxy, phenolic, polyurethane, silicone, UV curing.

The SpecialChem client wants to acquire a technology in the area of structural adhesives. The desired technology should be:

• an advanced technology where production and / or formulation know-how is essential
• ideally patent protected
• the target market should have the structure where the product could be sold to a few but big customers, e.g. automotive industry
• the technology should be capable to be sold directly to the customers where the material is used; without any additional formulation step in between.

The current structural adhesives market is dominated by epoxy and polyurethane (PU) systems, mainly 1K systems. Therefore the preferred technology should either be based on epoxy or PU or it should have an advantage over those systems in the target market of structural adhesives.

Solutions may be owned by automotive value chain players, such as:

• raw material suppliers
• adhesives formulators
• tier 1 and 2 suppliers
• distributors and OEM’s.

Buying / Licensing deal should take place in 2012.

A differentiated structural adhesives technology targeting the automotive industry would be ideal candidate for the SpecialChem client who could market it globally and develop potential new applications. To reach its objectives, the SpecialChem client is interested in either acquiring:

• the appropriate technology
• a portfolio of technologies (several technologies to serve the structural adhesives market)
• the technology PLUS the customer portfolio (if it exists)
• the company owning the technology