I do like the story that Post-It notes were invented by someone trying to create a new low-cost superglue, failing spectacularly, and then finding a way to market that failurehttps://twitter.com/mattdpearce/status/1230316704284020736?s=19 …
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It makes more sense than it sounds on first hearing Commercial "superglue" and the glue on a Post-It are the same family of molecules, acrylate polymers Post-Its were invented to try to address one of superglue's weaknesses, that it cures really fast when the solvent dries
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The guy's whole thing was developing a process to make much larger particles of the polymer (acrylate copolymer microspheres, ACMs) to make the glue pressure-sensitive Apply it to something and then at your leisure press it onto something and only then does it stick
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That part worked perfectly The problem is that it then just as easily unsticks There was no easy way to break the microspheres back down once stuck so that it cured the way glue is supposed to In fact it was remarkably stable and doesn't break down for weeks
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At that point it ceased to be a solution for their existing engineering problem and the problem became finding a problem it was a solution to (i.e. a marketing problem)
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I know more about this than average because this is the exact field (adhesive polymers) my dad worked in when I was a kid and he used to talk about the big dream of ending up rich the way the 3M guy did
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Unfortunately it doesn't seem that many opportunities for striking it rich in adhesives exist anymore, although he did apparently work on a patent for the polymer emulsions used to screen print ceramics
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