19.1 Introduction

The computer age has made significant and somewhat unexpected impacts on the adhesives and sealants industries in recent years. Computers and analytical programs have, of course, greatly assisted both adhesive developers and manufacturers. As examples, computer analysis capabilities have been able to help us understand the stress distributions within complex joints and to simulate the effect of chemical or moisture penetration within the adhesive joint. Such advances are expected of a mature industry and technology.

However, what was somewhat unexpected is the assistance that information technology provides to the end user of adhesives and sealants. These advances can primarily be classified as:

• Information access

• Search and selection capabilities

There are several examples given in this chapter for each of these areas.

It is apparent that information handling technologies are just now making inroads into this rather conservative industry. The future use of computers and information science in providing assistance to the end users appears to have significant potential. It may be appropriate to add "information sciences" to the sciences shown in Fig. 1.3 that make-up what we know today about adhesives and sealants technology.

19.2 Information Access

There are, of course, a proliferation of Internet web sites belonging to manufacturers of adhesives and sealants. These range from those that provide simply a contact person, to those that supply complete product descriptions, instructions on how to use the product, tutorials on surface preparation and joint design, and links to related web sites. The web sites that are related to...