The recent partnership making waves in composite adhesives market is that of Hexcel and Arkema. Incidentally, both these companies have signed a strategic agreement for developing thermoplastic composite solutions for the aerospace sector. The partnership is an apt instance demonstrating the transforming legacy of material technology that has been profoundly augmenting composite adhesives market since the last few years. The application spectrum of this business space is immensely vast – composite materials are prominently used across the aerospace, automotive, domestic appliances, marine, sports equipment, consumer electronics, biomedical, and construction sectors. It is prudent to mention that for every application, composite materials are deployed with a suitable perspective.
U.S. Composite Adhesives Market Size, By Product, 2016 & 2024 (Kilo Tons)
A succinct gist of composite adhesives market outlook from the aerospace sector:
The aerospace sector in particular, has been highly proactive to deploy advanced composite materials instead of conventional metals for attaining higher fuel efficiency as well as reducing operational costs and ecological footprints. Additionally, aircraft manufacturers are known to use effective adhesives for binding composite sub-components to maintain the structural integrity of mechanical components. With energy efficiency becoming a global mantra, weight reduction and performance enhancement are becoming highly pivotal for aircraft developers.
Composite based components also provide protection against lightning strikes – a factor that is crucial for the aerospace sector. Additionally, the business sphere highly demands extraordinary mechanical performance and better chemical resistance. Having recognized the same, major players in composite adhesives industry have been striving to develop highly cost-effective composites suitable for the aerospace business. Say for instance, Henkel, one of the leading participants of composite adhesives industry has been continuously collaborating with industrial customers to design integrated solutions for lightweight infrastructure.
Sports equipment manufacturing – An evolving hotbed for composite adhesives market
The sporting goods sector has turned out to be a surprisingly lucrative avenue for composite adhesives market. Sporting goods manufacturers are constantly looking for lightweight materials that can improve the performance of athletes and lead to lesser incidences of injury. Though plastics are more popular because of their moldability, sports equipment developers have now tuned to deploy composites owing to their higher durability, strength, lateral stability, and lightweight. Incidentally, composites are heavily used to develop bicycle frames, golf shafts, fishing rods, racquets, and snow skis already, enlarging the scope of composite adhesives industry.
A pivotal trend that is observed in this current era of digitalization is that of wearable electronics, the popularity of which is at its peak. Numerous athletes have been giving preference to software-assisted products to monitor and enhance their performance. In this regard, electronics and sports products manufacturing companies have been collaborating to launch high-tech sporting goods. In order to overcome the design challenge of assembling different materials, they are mainly focusing on adhesive bonding, which provides a great opportunity for the numerous companies partaking in composites adhesives market share.
Outlining the epoxy-based composite adhesives market trends
Despite welding, adhesives enable the deployment of a wide range of materials, helping manufacturers to combine new materials and create a strong, remarkable end-product. In order to fulfill the demand across myriad applications, adhesive manufacturers have begun to adopt innovative processing methods to transform liquid adhesives into load-bearing solids. They have also been brainstorming techniques to combat the challenges arising from adhesive enhancement, which would ultimately fuel composite adhesives industry share.
Speaking about various types of adhesives being used for numerous applications, it would be noteworthy to mention the Epoxy adhesive – one of the most extensively used variants. The adhesive can be used with a wide variety of curing agents and does not produce any volatile particulates during curing. Additionally, it offers good chemical resistance, better strength, and has capability to produce a toughened solution. On these grounds, epoxy certainly has a higher demand than its counterparts. Indeed, composite adhesives industry size from epoxy-based compounds will increase at a CAGR of 5.5% over 2017-2024, claim estimates. At present, the two-part epoxy is being formulated for medical electronic applications, owing to its porosity sealing and encapsulation properties. Seemingly, the product adheres to glass, ceramic, polyamides, metal, plastics, and composites very effectively.
With the swift change in regulatory norms regarding carbon dioxide emissions, the automotive and aerospace sectors are now massively demanding for composite adhesives. By minimizing structural weight, aircraft manufacturers and automakers plan to maximize fuel efficiency as much as possible, which may eventually lead to a reduction in CO2 emissions. For the record, in next-generation aircrafts, more than 50% components are likely to be composed of composite materials. Taking into account the meteoric rise in the requirement of these material across myriad sectors, it would be apt to state that composite adhesives industry will turn out to be a highly profitable vertical in the ensuing years. As per reliable estimates, composite adhesives market size will be pegged at USD 2 billion by 2024.