Who’s working on coatings and adhesives?

Coatings and adhesives are being reformulated around lower emissions, bio-based and fluorine-free ingredients, and bonds that hold in harder conditions, from battery packs to ship hulls. This page shows how much of that work the Helikon Research Graph holds and gives you a problem statement to run in Partner Search.

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What the Helikon Research Graph holds on coatings and adhesives

6,900+

researchers

10,000+

publications

4,400+

U.S. patents

Counts from the Helikon Research Graph on 13 October 2026, rounded down. Each figure is counted on its own, so they aren’t added together.

How these were counted

Publications: papers whose title, author names or research topics match the keyword set below, the same text the Literature search reads.
U.S. patents: granted U.S. patents whose text matches the keyword set and that carry at least one of these CPC subclasses: C09D, C09J, B05D. That is the Patents search with the CPC subclass field set.
Researchers: people in the graph who authored a matching publication or are named inventors on a matching patent.
Keyword set: "protective coating" OR "anticorrosion coating" OR "anti-corrosion coating" OR "anticorrosive coating" OR "corrosion-resistant coating" OR "organic coating" OR "powder coating" OR "waterborne coating" OR "water-based coating" OR "waterborne polyurethane" OR "UV-curable coating" OR "UV curable coating" OR "epoxy coating" OR "polyurethane coating" OR "antifouling coating" OR "superhydrophobic coating" OR "self-healing coating" OR "fluoropolymer coating" OR "intumescent coating" OR "conformal coating" OR "automotive coating" OR "architectural coating" OR "latex paint" OR "paint formulation" OR "alkyd resin" OR "pressure-sensitive adhesive" OR "pressure sensitive adhesive" OR "structural adhesive" OR "hot melt adhesive" OR "hot-melt adhesive" OR "adhesive bonding" OR "adhesive joint" OR "adhesively bonded" OR "epoxy adhesive" OR "polyurethane adhesive" OR "acrylic adhesive" OR "bio-based adhesive" OR "wood adhesive" OR "underwater adhesive" OR "adhesive tape" OR "adhesion promoter" OR "UV-curable adhesive" OR "UV curable adhesive"

Try it on a real problem

Partner Search ranks researchers against a problem statement by what their publications, patents and profiles say. This one’s ready to run. Edit it to fit your project.

We're replacing a solvent-borne epoxy primer for steel with a waterborne coating, and corrosion resistance drops in salt-spray testing. Looking for a group with waterborne resin chemistry and accelerated corrosion testing.

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Who’s working on this

Polymer science, chemical engineering, materials and wood science groups at universities, national laboratories, and company teams in chemicals, paints, tapes and labels, aerospace and automotive. The largest companies here hold far more patents than they publish, so the patent lists lean toward industry.

Universities and research labs

Ranked by researchers with work in this area, researchers whose main topic it is, and the U.S. patents they own.

Georgia Institute of Technology
77 researchers · 81 publications · 6 U.S. patents
North Carolina State University
62 researchers · 37 publications · 3 U.S. patents
University of Akron
29 researchers · 77 publications · 4 U.S. patents
North Dakota State University
21 researchers · 135 publications · 14 U.S. patents
University of Minnesota
48 researchers · 53 publications · 1 U.S. patent
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
19 researchers · 37 publications · 9 U.S. patents
Pennsylvania State University
53 researchers · 45 publications · 4 U.S. patents
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
27 researchers · 36 publications · 4 U.S. patents

Companies

Ranked by the U.S. patents they own in this area and the researchers who work on it.

3M
79 researchers · 24 publications · 525 U.S. patents
Dow Chemical
74 researchers · 40 publications · 190 U.S. patents
Boeing
28 researchers · 34 publications · 49 U.S. patents
DuPont
21 researchers · 14 publications · 40 U.S. patents
PPG Industries
11 researchers · 1 publication · 107 U.S. patents
IBM
17 researchers · 12 publications · 21 U.S. patents
Avery Dennison
4 researchers · 6 publications · 68 U.S. patents
General Motors
19 researchers · 38 publications · 17 U.S. patents

Specialists

Organizations where at least a quarter of their researchers work in this area.

Lintec Corporation · Japan
22 researchers · 20 publications · 64 U.S. patents

From the Helikon Research Graph on 13 October 2026. Researchers are people now at the organization who authored a matching publication or are named inventors on a matching patent. Publications are matching publications that list the organization among their authors’ affiliations at the time of publication, counted once each. Patents are matching U.S. patents the organization owns. Each name opens the organization’s page on Helikon Labs.

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