Innovation is usually associated with breakthrough moments: a new idea, a new technology, or a solution that changes everything all at once. But when it comes to advanced epoxy solutions, innovation rarely happens that way.
Developing the right epoxy system is an iterative process. It requires understanding the application, developing and testing a formulation, gathering feedback, and refining the material as it moves from the lab to production to real-world use.
At Copps Industries, that process is what customization is designed to accomplish.
Understand the Application
When a customer comes to us with an application challenge, our first job is to understand what the material needs to do—and what could prevent it from doing that successfully.
We look beyond basic performance requirements and consider factors like operating temperatures, environmental exposure, substrate materials, processing methods, cure requirements, production speed, and expected service life.
Our customers understand their processes, equipment, products, and operating environments. Our team understands how chemistry can influence characteristics like strength, flexibility, viscosity, cure time, adhesion, and durability. Bringing those perspectives together gives us a clearer picture of the requirements and potential challenges we need to account for.
Develop and Test the Formulation
Once the requirements are established, our chemists start to develop or modify a formulation around the conditions of the application.
Testing provides important information about how the formulation performs and allows us to evaluate whether it delivers the right balance of properties. But even extensive laboratory testing can’t recreate every variable a material might encounter in production or in the field.
That makes the first formulation an important milestone, but not necessarily the end of the development process.
Gather Feedback and Refine
Once a material moves into production, new information can emerge.
It might perform exactly as expected, but we realize it could flow more easily through existing equipment. Maybe a slightly different cure profile would help improve production efficiency. An application might be exposed to temperatures, loads, moisture, or other environmental factors that vary more than we originally anticipated.
Those discoveries don’t mean we have to go back to square one. Rather, they provide information that can make a good formulation even better suited to the application.
This is where ongoing collaboration becomes especially valuable. Feedback from the production floor or field can be brought back to the lab, evaluated, and translated into the next formulation. Each iteration builds on what we’ve learned.
Continue to Evolve
Off-the-shelf materials are designed to meet a predetermined set of requirements. But manufacturing environments are dynamic: equipment changes, new processes are introduced, production goals increase, regulations evolve.
As these factors change, the material may need to change with them.
A custom epoxy formulation gives manufacturers the ability to continue optimizing the material around the needs of a specific application. And an ongoing partnership gives customers the opportunity to come back to us when something changes or a new challenge emerges.
That’s why we think of innovation as an ongoing process of learning and refinement. The goal isn’t to develop a formulation once and walk away. It’s to create a solution that performs today and continues performing as needs change.
Copps Industries: Innovating through Collaboration
The right epoxy system rarely comes together in a single step. It’s built through an iterative, collaborative process with a shared focus on achieving reliable performance in the real world.
At Copps Industries, we know the best formulation isn’t the one that comes together fastest—it’s the one that evolves and adapts to meet new needs and requirements. Learn more about our custom formulation capabilities and contact us to discuss your application with our team.