Signal · Debonding-on-demand triggersPrepared for H.B. Fuller · September 2026
The open ground you were looking for is real. Henkel is already standing on it.
Henkel is already selling this. Your goal is 60% sustainable new products by 2030. A carmaker locks its adhesive choice once per vehicle generation, so the door is open only until the next platform is specified. This is how fast each trigger is improving, and who owns the one that is growing.
Four trigger routes measured · the young electrical field read patent by patent
The decision
Where the debonding bet goes · structural adhesive is 19 patents, and 15 are Henkel's
The clock
Adhesive choice locks once per vehicle generation · the door closes at the next platform spec
The map
Four debonding triggers, measured on maturity and improvement rate.
The high/low TIR bands split on the median improvement rate of these four triggers (18.6%/yr) — a judgement relative to this domain, not a fixed threshold. The maturity split is TRL 5, the end of validation in a relevant environment. Source: GetFocus platform export · September 2026.
What the signal shows
The field55 since 2022
Three years ago this barely existed.
We read every patent in it: 92 in the world, and 55 of them filed since 2022. Adhesive makers in it went from 12 to 30 across the same jump. Four companies hold 66 of the 92.
Tape or adhesive19 of 92
Three of the four big holders only make tape.
Nitto has 15 patents, all tape. tesa 14, all tape. 3M 11, all tape. Not one structural adhesive between them. Structural adhesive — your business — is 19 of the 92.
The one that matters15 of 19
Henkel holds 15 of those 19. And 9 of the 12 for battery packs.
Only 12 patents in the world name an EV battery pack. Henkel has nine, six of them structural. They also report the quickest release on record: half a volt for one second.
Who holds the patents
Patent families per route — and each route’s biggest holder.
Source: GetFocus platform export · September 2026
The big fields at the top are tape fields — Nitto, tesa and 3M file tape, not structural adhesive. The indigo bar is the young one: electrical debonding is the smallest field on the chart, the fastest-growing filing base (+114% YoY), and Henkel already holds 26 of its 92 families.
For H.B. Fuller
The field is three years old and still small: 92 patents in the world, and only 12 name a battery pack. The tape makers crowding the top of the list are not in your business, they file tape. But structural adhesive is 19 patents and Henkel holds 15, plus nine of the twelve battery ones. So this is not empty ground, it is Henkel's ground. The useful part is the size: 19 patents is a thin wall, and you already knew who you were chasing.
The method, in one minute
What is TIR?
TIR — the Technology Improvement Rate — measures how fast a technology gets better each year, computed from global patent data. Not who is filing, or how much: how fast the route is actually moving. Historically, the fastest-improving technology always wins.
Signal 1 · Cycle time
How many years between one generation of inventions and the next.
Methodology co-developed with MIT — 30 years of peer-reviewed research.
What we could look into next
Three questions this teaser opened.
01
The nineteen
Read Henkel's 15 claim by claim. Where is the room left?
02
The other three triggers
Henkel is top five in all four. Is any one of them less taken?
03
Earthic
It rides on PET staying whole. In PET, breaking the chain is winning by 21 points.
Pick one, or choose a new topic. We run it as a full proof of concept for you, at no cost.
A free proof of concept, on your question
Pick one question. We run it for free.
Read Henkel's fifteen structural patents claim by claim, test which of the four triggers is least taken, or check whether Earthic's bet on PET staying whole holds — we run any one as a full proof of concept, at no cost, walked through with our analysts.
