Лако-красочные материалы — производство

At the beginning of the twentieth century, engineers and technologists would have recognized the importance of adhesion in two main aspects: First, in the display of friction between surfaces — at the time a topic of growing importance to engineers; the second in crafts requiring the joining of materials—principally wood—to form engineering structures. While physical scientists would have admitted the adhesive properties of glues, gels, and certain pastes, they regarded them as materials of uncertain formulation, too impure to be amenable to precise experiment. Biological scientists were aware also of adhesive phenomena, but the science was supported by documentation rather than understanding.

By the end of the century, adhesion and adhesives were playing a crucial and deliberate role in the formulation of materials, in the design and manufacture of engineering structures without weakening rivets or pins, and in the use of thin sections and intricate shapes. Miniaturization down to the micro — and now to the nano-level of mechanical, electrical, electronic, and optical devices relied heavily on the understanding and the technology of adhesion. For most of the century, physical scientists were aware that the states of matter, whether gas, liquid, or solid, were determined by the competition between thermal energy and inter­molecular binding forces. Then the solid state had to be differentiated into crystals, amorphous glasses, metals, etc., so the importance of the molecular attractions in determining stiffness and strength became clearer. Cross-linked rubbers and composites designed at the macro — and micro-level were developed to extend the range of materials available for engineering purposes. Adhesion at the molecular scale, at surfaces and interfaces, was recognized to be a vital factor determining performance.

Biological sciences were not excluded from this explosion of knowledge. The study of cell structure and cell behavior, including material transport across membranes, cell division, and cell adhesion, raised aspects of adhesion already familiar in physical colloid systems. Then the rise of molecular biology in the last

30 years has brought adhesion into prominence at all levels of organization in biological systems.

Certainly there is a vast literature, and especially a voluminous research canon, associated with the science of adhesion. However, the literature is fragmented and diffuse because adhesion is involved in all areas of endeavor. The engineering literature is somewhat more ordered because of the need to agree good practice and safety protocol. It is nevertheless compartmentalized. Even so, it is not easy to align scientific knowledge with engineering practice in many fields of application. One possible exception is computer modeling, which is at the cutting edge of advances both in science and engineering though the emphasis is rather different. No doubt, in the future, we shall see adhesion modeled at the molecular level and tracked through to engineering practice with the aid of computers.

Remarkably, there is no scientific monograph covering the state and current

knowledge of adhesion. Nor is there an engineering treatise to take the reader onto a representative range of applications. This is not because we have lacked leading scientists or engineers or gifted teachers in the twentieth century. Presumably, they have been too busy in a field of rapid progress. Now the challenge of promoting a unified account of molecular adhesion, extending it to basic laws and technical practice and onto applications has been taken up by Kevin Kendall. His enthusiasm for the subject and his experience in academe and industry shines through this comprehensive treatise. It is a book that can be read from cover to cover, or a laboratory and design manual to be dipped into as work demands. It benefits enormously from the distillation of a vast subject through a single mind.

Sir Geoffrey Allen FRS