Reinventing Structural Bonding

Fabien Choffat was born February 27, 1978 in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. In January 1999, I went to high school in Solothurn and graduated. In the same year, he started his studies in Technical Chemistry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. In 2003 he completed his studies at ETH Zurich as a Diploma Chemist. In January 2004, he joined the Polymer Technology group of Prof. Paul Smith and Prof. Walter Caseri for his doctorate studies about the synthesis and characterization of inorganic, semiconductive polymers (Polystannanes). In August 2007, he joined the adhesive research & development group of Sika Technology AG (Zurich, Switzerland) as the R&D project leader. He developed and introduced several new sealants and adhesives based on silane-terminated polymer technology. In January 2011, he appointed R&D Head of silane terminated products. In March 2018, he took over the lead in developing 2C adhesives within Sika, taking care of global 2C adhesive developments within Sika. In January 2022, he was appointed as Head of Technology – Structural Adhesives and therefore has the R&D responsibility of Sika Structural Adhesive initiatives.

Sika is constantly reinventing bonding by introducing new, innovative, and sustainable solutions enabling new, faster, and more durable connections. A recent example of such a ground-breaking innovation is our new curing-by-design structural elastic adhesives. Skipping traditional joining techniques such as screwing or welding, components do not need to be drilled or heated during the bonding process. Also, different types of material can be bonded and sealed against liquid ingress. Here customers can significantly save production costs and process duration with a tailored adhesive step.

This technology permits faster bonding of new self-supporting glassfiber frames, a core feature for a new range of ultra-lightweight construction

In industrial production, such advantages are obvious but also in construction, where fast return to service or faster construction is required. The recently developed curing-by-design is a two-component polyurethane adhesive technology and provides a unique way of combining long working times and fast curing.

“This means you can program when the adhesive has to harden,” says Fabien Choffat, Head of Technology – Structural Adhesives. “This allows us to deliver highly efficient solutions for automated production or solution products for unmatched return to service times. For example, one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of recreational vehicles has revolutionized its caravan production process using the latest Sika adhesive technology. This technology permits faster bonding of new self-supporting glass-fiber frames, a core feature for their new range of ultra-lightweight construction. In the construction and especially refurbishment segment, we bring new products for rail bonding. These rails underlying with a structural elastic adhesive are key for noise and vibration reduction. By introducing curing-bydesign solutions, the working time for the applicator could be easily doubled combined with nearly six times shortened return to service, which allows easily to perform the refurbishment work during the traffic-free night shift and therefore without any traffic interruptions.”

The awarded technology was even transferred to the flooring business, which helps reduce or minimize unproductive waiting times for the products to cure. With a typical polyurethane resin flooring system, each build-up layer generally needs one day for application and curing. With an increasing number of projects requiring a faster return-to-service, it would be beneficial to carry out as many of the working steps as possible or complete the build-up in a single day. These were several examples of how Sika can use one technology for different applications, and currently, many more are under investigation.