Technology Centers of Excellence

H.B. Fuller manufacturers products for tile and soft flooring installation systems, including mortars, grouts, caulks, liquid membranes and additives in its state-of-the art, 250,000+ square foot facility in Aurora, Illinois.

In addition to leading in operational excellence, the Aurora facility is also the Construction Products’ global business headquarters, and includes R&D, Technical Service, Marketing, Customer Service, Finance, HR, Supply Chain, and other functions.

Innovation at H.B. Fuller is about leveraging our expertise and market knowledge to commercialize value-added adhesives solutions for our customers. 

Built in the late 1980s, our global headquarters in Minnesota enables our R&D and manufacturing process experts to collaborate with customers at every step of product development from design through production. 

From this site, we help customers test ideas, demonstrate adhesion performance without interrupting their production schedule, and efficiently commercialize a range of durable and consumer goods.

In 2019, we opened our Insulating Glass (IG) Technical Center of Excellence. Customers can generate IG units for testing, try new processing conditions, and generate different systems for comparison – all without taking up time on their own lines. It also can be used as a training center to help customers better understand the capabilities of a line and how to use our products.

 

Today’s modern building and construction requires high-performing and sustainable flooring installation systems. To meet this need, the H.B. Fuller Construction Products offers a range of innovative products, including water-based flooring adhesives for carpet, vinyl, wood and other flooring types. 

In our Dalton, Georgia facility, our technology experts work closely with our manufacturing teams to ensure our flooring installation adhesives meet the rigorous standards that our customers and construction contractors expect.

With a partnership approach, we work closely with customers to understand and their challenges and deliver proven solutions that meet real world challenges in a continuously changing landscape of materials, substrates and environments.

In 2017, H.B. Fuller acquired Adecol, which is based in Guarulhos, Brazil. This expansive, high-tech facility is critical to the development and expansion of Latin American markets, as we can utilize the larger space to feature a showroom for customers to experience our products in person while still conducting research for the development of innovative products.

 

H.B. Fuller has a great relationship with its customers in the area, which gives us a foothold to work closely with them to develop excellent hot melt, reactive, and polymer-based solutions in our new state-of-the-art facility. Scalability is also easier with the center’s pilot reactor, which will speed up customer delivery time and build a strong sense of trust. 

 

The professional, properly equipped facility is the ideal setting for the development of solutions to customers’ manufacturing and performance challenges, as the center brings together everything necessary — people, products and processes — to connect customers to innovative adhesive solutions that will give them a competitive edge.

 

Opened in 2015, this LEED®-certified* facility combines state-of-the-art equipment with the collective knowledge of experts drawn from H.B. Fuller’s global network. It provides an environment to work in partnership with customers to solve problems and create new solutions more rapidly.

 

Covering 2,300 square meters, the Lüneburg Adhesive Academy includes dedicated areas for packaging and converting, hygiene and durable assembly adhesive technologies. It is purpose-designed for related functions, such as conducting experiments, running demonstrations and training customers. 

* LEED® is a trademark owned by the U.S. Green Building Council®. USGBC® is a trademark owned by the U.S. Green Building Council®.

 

 

 

Located in the heart of Europe, our Automotive Competence Center in Mannheim, Germany, formulates and tests water-based, hot melt and lamination adhesives for automotive interior trim and related applications.

Acquired by H.B. Fuller in 2012, this business has been partnering with the automotive industry since the early 1990s, when the Thermonex™ brand was introduced to the market. Today, our automotive team brings exceptional R&D and testing expertise to the world’s most sophisticated auto manufacturers. And, we are expanding our capabilities in a new technical center that will better enable our team to support the development of lighter, safer, more energy efficient cars.

Our vision is to be a global leader in engineering adhesives solutions, so we collaborate closely with customers from the creative product design stage through the manufacturing process. Our adhesives experts at TONSAN work tirelessly to help customers improve efficiency and lower costs associated with the production process while, at the same time partnering to optimize their technology and to improve product quality and performance.

The TONSAN business was founded in 1993, and our award-winning R&D center in Beijing is a certified Beijing Municipal Technology Center. With more than 70 chemists, engineers and other technical specialists, this center supports innovation and growth for global customers in highly specified, fast growing markets, including automotive, electronics, solar/wind power, heavy equipment, and MRO.

Responsibility. Honesty. Respect. Integrity. Excellence. Commitment. These are just a few of the words that, throughout our long history, have characterized how we do business, and our investments in China enable us to put those values into tangible action.

 

 

We opened our first technical center in Shanghai in 2009, which provides the opportunity to apply rigorous market-based R&D and applications testing for our customers in China and across the Asia Pacific region. This lab focuses on next-generation adhesives applications that help improve customers’ processes and the quality of their packaging, hygiene and durable assembly products.

Working closely with customers to dream up the next great mobile communications device, how to build a superlight, self-driving car, or new ways to harness the power of wind or the sun has made our TONSAN business a market leader in engineering adhesives solutions.

 

 

The Suzhou technical center was built in 2009 to serve the photovoltaic silicone sealant market. By helping our customers optimize their technology, improve the quality of solar modules, and increase product performance, our adhesive technology experts in Suzhou are not only supporting our customers’ success, but they are supporting growth in the clean energy sector.

We are excited about working with customers in India, home to the world’s second largest population, to accelerate innovation in the region and support our customers’ success. Working closely with our commercial teams based in Pune, our technology experts in Shirwal, which is located about 65 km south of Pune, are helping customers create new solutions to their adhesion challenges more rapidly than ever before.

 

Spanning 5,000 square feet, our India technology center features dedicated areas to conduct experiments, run demonstrations, and train customers to use our hot melt, water-based, anaerobic and cyanoacrylate technologies. Its close proximity to the production floor also increases collaboration between our R&D and manufacturing teams.

In 2018 H.B. Fuller opened a new technical application center in Klang, Malaysia, in addition to making significant improvements to plant operations and the R&D facility..

The investments bring new application capabilities in the hygiene, packaging, durable assembly, and woodworking markets, all of which are intended to build on our strategic goals and gain more business with increased capabilities. Additionally, the grand opening is consistent with H.B. Fuller’s long-term strategy to grow its business in Southeast Asia specifically.