Picture (above): Me and a few of my skunk friends:
Punk (left), unknown, Pepe le Pew (right), Stinky (in hand).
Well-intentioned family members send me these.
A brief bio:
Paul Krebaum, age 40-something. Married, 3 children.
Bachelor of Arts in Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Bennington College.
Also attended Rensselear Polytechnic Institute for 2 years.
Worked in the cosmetics field for a few years, then joined Molex, Inc.
Stayed 15 years with Molex before starting my own consulting business,
The Adhesive Doctor.
(see letterhead at bottom of this document).
Received 4 patents at Molex, U.S. 5,036,249; 5,456.616; 5,952,446;
and 6,265,519. It was while working on the first patent that the
skunk remedy was invented. Part of the research involved a reaction
which produced hydrogen sulfide gas...and was not appreciated by others
in the building. I used a much stronger version of "the recipe" to
scrub this waste gas stream, to much success. One of the guys I
worked with in the lab, Maciej Pike-Biegunski, told me one day that
the family cat had just gotten skunked. I wrote down a much milder
formula for him to try on the cat, and it worked ! I sent my tale
in to Chemical & Engineering News, K.M. Reese published it in the
"Newscripts" section on Oct. 18, 1993. And as they say, the rest
is history. Actually, things were kind of uneventful until Peter
Kendall of the Chicago Tribune caught the scent of the C&EN article
and published a piece in the Trib. 15 minutes of fame does wonders
for the ego, more than that is a pain in the ass...the last thing
parents of a newborn need is the local UHF station wanting to drop by
with a camera crew because it's been a slow news day.
I'll wind this up with a plug for my consulting business. I discovered
my passion for polymer chemistry at Molex, and after over 15 years with
their premier corporate R & D group (Advanced Development) I've gotten
involved with just about every material and process related to
electrical connectors, fiber optics, and membrane switches. It was our
original charter to introduce new materials and technology to the rest
of the company. And, interestingly, we were called the "skunkworks"
by the group's founder (John Krehbiel, Sr.) who patterned it after the
famous U-2 spyplane Skunkworks.
I've discovered I have a knack for fixing, inventing, and improving
things, whether they be polymers or processes. My favorite polymers
are epoxy resins, followed by silicones, acrylics & other olefins,
polyureas, and polyurethanes, respectively. These are the major polymers
for high-tech structural adhesives. Where these adhesives meet industrial
assembly processes defines a problem area faced by almost every
manufacturer: it needs improvement. Why ? The reasons abound:
"Curing this adhesive is the bottleneck in our whole process, if we
could speed it up we could double our production rate..."
"Our workers develop allergies to Resin "X"."
"It doesn't stick." Worse: "Sometimes it sticks well, other times
it doesn't." Worst: "It sticks great, then fails in the field."
And the list goes on. Curing the above ills, and many others,
is what I do. If your process has problems, call The Adhesive Doctor.
(a.k.a. me) Or write, e-mail, etc. I charge for solutions, but brief
opinions as to whether or not I can help are free (unless travel is
required).
A bit of detail on my epoxy resin specialties:
(I've worked w/epoxies for 25 yrs)
Epoxy polymers via ANY cure mechanism.
--amine
--amide
--anhydride
--polyol
--mercaptan (thiol)
--polyacid
--Mannich base
--copolymerizations
--Lewis acid/Lewis base
--U.V. cure/I.R. cure/Heat cure/Dual cure/"Snap" cure
--and more...
Screen printable & syringe dispensible compositions:
--electrically conductive
--Z-axis conductive
--thermally conductive
--assorted dielectric constants
--barrier to moisture/gasses/chemicals
--barrier to silver migration
--electrically insulating
--replacement for sheet film adhesives and laminations
Resins which are:
--adhesive
--elastomeric
--thermal shock resistant
--ultra-fast curing
--ultra-low shrinkage
--abrasion resistant
--solventless
--weatherproof
--clear or any color you want
--fluorescent, phosphorescent, electroluminescent
--based on natural (vegetable) sources
--1/2/3 parts
--long pot life & quick curing (in the same system)
--tolerant of surface contamination
My letterhead:
