mercredi 14 décembre 2011

The Sticky Issue of Adhesives, Glues and Tapes

Give me a good glue and I'll rule the world!

Well, maybe I'm exaggerating just a little bit, but without modern adhesives, much of what we take for granted today would not stay together. Special glues hold our cars, our countertops, our furniture and our computers together.
Adhesives allow thin things made of different materials to be bonded together in ways that are impossible with mechanical fasteners.

Thin materials most of all demand creative fastening... and glues are often the best choice.

The words "glue" and "adhesive" are oft used interchangeably. To set the technical record straight (even though I still reserve the "creative license" to call an adhesive a glue and vice versa), glue is defined as:
"... a hard, brittle gelatin made by boiling animal skins, bones, hoofs, etc. to a jelly: when heated in water, it forms a sticky viscous liquid used to stick things together" Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary

Just makes you want to dance with the chickens, doesn't it? On the other hand, "adhesive" is any product, including glue, that can be used to bond two separate objects together. Unfortunately, no one adhesive works in all situations, though some may be used in all sorts of situations. Fun, right? The Natural Handyman carries a variety of different adhesives in his bag of tricks.

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