In 1926, a young entrepreneur in Elgin, Ill., understood how important transportation would be to future development in the U.S. W.R. “Bob” Meadows realized that seasonal conditions wreaked havoc on the expansion and contraction of concrete, and he saw an opportunity to control these forces by developing asphalt and wood fiber expansion joints.

On your car windshield, ice is a nuisance. On an airplane, a wind turbine, an oil rig or power line, it can be downright dangerous. In addition, removing it with the methods available today—usually chemical melting agents or labor-intensive scrapers and hammers—is difficult and expensive.

The adhesives and sealants industry has a continuing need to close the gap between formulators in the R&D laboratory and end users in the manufacturing and applications environment.