CYANOACRYLATE

Cyanoacrylate

Cyanoacrylate

Cyanoacrylate was first invented in 1949 by Dr Harry Coover. At the time Coover was working for Kodak Laboratories where he was trying to synthesise optically clear plastics for precision gunsights during WWII. He was working with cyanoacrylates that seemed to be promising but frustratingly stuck to everything they touched! Coover noted this down but failed to see their potential as adhesives until 1951 (Ashby, 2005, 33-41Ashby). At this point, Coover was in charge of a research team who were trying to make a stronger heat resistant acrylate polymer for jet plane canopies. One of his research students ...