Founder’s messge
The first three years of this decade-long journey were devoted to testing. We worked with every polymer we could get our hands on—thermoplastics, thermosets, and elastomers—to determine whether our bonding process could overcome the limitations of conventional adhesives. Every attempt succeeded, and every result revealed a practical application. Some materials bonded more easily and effectively than others. Silicone rubber, along with most other elastomers, proved to be among the most responsive.
That discovery continues to produce meaningful results in the real world. Today, I received a call from the owner of a sign and LED installation company that has used Tech-Bond to attach silicone-encased LED lighting to signs. During the past year, two of those signs broke. What surprised him was not that the signs failed—it was that the silicone rubber remained securely bonded even after the signs themselves were damaged.
Just as important, the bonded silicone and LED assemblies remained flexible. The bond did not become rigid, brittle, or incompatible with the material it joined. It continued to move with the silicone, preserving the very characteristic that makes elastomers so valuable.
That is the difference between simply applying an adhesive and creating a bond engineered to work with the material itself. When the bond survives conditions that damage the surrounding structure—and the material remains flexible—you begin to understand what our Polymer Bonding Process™ makes possible.
Elastomers possess unique properties that make them exceptionally valuable to Tech-Bond’s technologies and central to Intelligent Interface Engineering (IIE™). Their flexibility, resilience, vibration absorption, and resistance to demanding operating conditions have already made them indispensable in O-rings, gaskets, seals, engine mounts, tires, belts, conveyor systems, diaphragms, couplings, vibration dampeners, and countless other applications. Yet their full potential has often been limited by the difficulty of bonding them reliably to other materials without sacrificing flexibility.
Tech-Bond’s patented Polymer Bonding Process overcomes that limitation, enabling elastomers to be integrated with metals, plastics, fabrics, and other materials as functional components of engineered solutions. Through IIE™, elastomers can help manage movement, absorb stress, accommodate thermal expansion, and improve performance across interfaces where conventional adhesives and mechanical connections fall short. This will enable new solutions accross an array of industries.
Elastomers also offer significant chemical benefits, including resistance to oils, fuels, solvents, acids, alkalis, moisture, oxidation, ozone, and other environmental or industrial contaminants, depending on the elastomer selected. Fluoroelastomers can withstand demanding chemical and fuel exposure, fluorosilicones combine flexibility with resistance to certain fuels and oils, and EPDM performs well in applications involving water, weathering, and selected chemicals. These characteristics allow elastomers to serve as protective barriers, sealing layers, and chemically resistant interfaces between materials exposed to challenging operating conditions. Through Intelligent Interface Engineering (IIE™), Tech-Bond can select and bond the appropriate elastomer to improve chemical resistance, protect vulnerable substrates, and extend the service life of engineered repairs and assemblies.