Лако-красочные материалы — производство

Information sources fall rather naturally into several categories, which are listed alpha­betically in Table 1. This, of course, says nothing about the validity of information avail­able from any of these sources. Nor does it indicate the ease or difficulty in mining information from a particular source. Each of these categories will be reported on sepa­rately.

A great deal of information has a degree of interconnectedness. That is, papers pre­sented at a conference may also get published in a book, or in a trade magazine. Data for a technical bulletin may become part of the background information that forms the founda­tion of knowledge used by a consultant. Many companies participate in standards’ setting, and many companies participate in market surveys of different market segments. Members of some adhesive manufacturing companies conduct workshops for users. Company websites are designed to disseminate information to whosoever is interested.

That being stated, it is important that the engineer, or researcher, have a basic plan or stated objective when conducting an information search. Some information may be appro­priate and germane to the project, other information may simply be interesting, or provo­cative. Given the diversity of information available, it is very easy to become distracted from the purpose at hand. While it appears obvious that different goals will require different search protocols, not everyone approaches the problem from a logical point of view. For instance, the most common goal is to find an adhesive which will bond Substrate A to Substrate B. The engineer should do his/her level best to define all known parameters of that

Table 1 Information Sources

Associations

Books

Consultants and Other Services Courses and Conferences Directories and Market Research Government Agencies Journals and Trade Publications Libraries Manufacturers Online Sources

bonding situation so that it can be detailed properly to the representatives of adhesive manufacturers. The next logical step is to find out what kinds of adhesives or sealants typically are used to bond these substrates together, so referring to available books might be a good starting point. Second, a literature search through the ‘‘Reader’s Guide to Periodicals” might prove fruitful. Third, a search of paper presentations at one or more conferences may be of value, which would require contact with the sponsoring organiza­tions. Finding companies that manufacture products of a particular adhesive type would require using directories of one sort or another. The engineer may have to purchase the services of a consultant to better define product requirements and locate companies that supply appropriate materials. Conversely, contact with an association may lead to a member company with the right types of products. If the kind of adhesive required is known to a definitive degree, an online search may list a number of companies in that category.

Of course, other types of bonding problems may require a totally different kind of search, perhaps one more heavily weighted towards academic research results. Which just reinforces the need to conduct searches in a structured, well-defined manner. A search with­out focus will generate a great deal of information, some of which might actually be useful.