Cyanoacrylates—also known as CA glue, ethyl cyanoacrylates, super glues, instant adhesives, or Krazy Glues—are adhesives made from cyanoacrylate esters (most commonly ethyl). These adhesives are primarily characterized by their fast cure time when moisture is present. Once solidified, they form strong and rigid bonds between two substrates pressed firmly together.
Though you may not be familiar with the term cyanoacrylate adhesive, you’re probably familiar with the product itself. Commonly called super glue, instant glue, power glue, or by the brand names such as Krazy Glue, cyanoacrylate adhesive is critical to the assembly of goods for a variety of applications across industries. These glues are heat resistant, dry quickly, and will bond almost any material with another, making them ideal for a wide range of applications.
Throughout the years, innovations in construction material and manufacturing processes have led to medical-grade adhesives replacing the use of traditional fastening systems in medical device assemblies. When properly applied, adhesives present significant advantages over other mechanical fastening methods.
The strength behind industrial super glue is often a topic of conversation with our customers. So we thought we would create this post to provide an overview in an attempt to cover this topic. As we mentioned in a prior post, keep in mind, not all super glues are created equal. In fact, there are varying types of super glues (also known as cyanoacrylates), that are intended for various type of applications.
When choosing an adhesive for an industrial or consumer assembly application, it is important to identify and understand the differences between the types available. Adhesive manufacturers produce a variety of adhesives, each of which exhibits distinct chemical characteristics and provides different advantages and disadvantages depending on the use case.
We thought we would take time out from talking all about cyanoacrylates to deliver a more light-hearted message, 
for fun of course. Even if you are actively involved in the adhesives industry, our guess is that you likely aren’t familiar with the comprehensive history of adhesives. We don’t want to go too deep into the complete details of how one of the greatest inventions known to man came to be, so we thought we’d break it down into a whole bunch of fun, interesting and lesser-known facts about adhesives.
1. Cyanoacrylate: An overview
This post has been designed to provide insight as to the trends and economic shifts when it comes to the general category of adhesives and mechanical fastening technology for industrial applications.
Some of the innovations that emerged out of World War II are well-documented, ranging from the microwave to the photo copier. But there’s one small tool whose WW2 heritage is lesser-known. Today we know this powerful product as Super Glue.
