GASTONIA, NC — North Carolina officials announced that chemical manufacturer Dymax Corp. will establish a new production facility outside Charlotte.

It may not be as “sexy” as a robot or a high-speed automated assembly system, but one of the most interesting new products introduced at the show last fall was actually an adhesive.

For mass-production on assembly lines, UV- and light-curing adhesives offer significant advantages over other joining methods.

TOKYO—Researchers at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology have developed an organic material that can be liquefied or hardened by shining different types of light on it. The result is an adhesive that can be used over and over again.