Everyone is trying to operate faster and more efficiently these days.
Adhesive formulators go to great lengths to offer adhesive formulations that "cure on demand" or provide an "instantaneous bond" for their customers interested in reducing production time. Yet, in their own shops many formulators often employ time consuming, inefficient processes such as "trial-and-error" in developing these same formulations.
The design of experiments (DOE) approach to optimizing formulations is a powerful tool for formulators to find an ideal formulation via statistical analysis of mixtures.
This article illustrates how to apply DOE methods for the purpose of accelerating product development and discovering formulation relationships that may remain hidden using a standard trial-and-error approach.