Winner David Famula selects Make-A-Wish America to receive a donation!

With football season coming to its conclusion on Sunday, we want to share the results of our 8th Annual Austin Hardware^® Charity Football Pool.

This year’s contest went 12 weeks into the 2023-24 season. The player who outlasted the competition this year is David Famula from Germany.

David beat out our runner-up, Robert Carmer, on the Monday night of week #12 when the Chicago Bears upset Robert's pick, the Minnesota Vikings, on Minnesota's home field. This result gave David the victory, as he had already gotten a Week #12 victory when the Los Angeles Rams defeated the Arizona Cardinals that Sunday afternoon.

In the complex automotive manufacturing world, achieving a perfect balance between structural integrity, aesthetics, and durability is paramount. One often overlooked yet crucial component in this process is seam sealer. Seam sealers play a vital role in enhancing the overall performance and longevity of vehicles, particularly in the presence of pre- and post-e-coat processes.

Seam sealants are commonly used in the automotive industry to seal joints, seams, and gaps in vehicle bodies to prevent water, dust, and other elements from penetrating and causing corrosion, subsequently enhancing the overall durability of the vehicle.

Their application occurs at various stages of the manufacturing process, including both pre-electrocoat (e-coat) and post-e-coat stages.

Electrocoating, or e-coating, involves immersing the vehicle body in a tank of electrically charged paint particles. The paint adheres to the metal surfaces electrostatically. After applying the e-coat, the vehicle body goes through a bake oven, where the paint is cured. The high temperature in the oven helps the e-coat form a durable, protective layer.

It's essential to use seam sealants that are compatible with the e-coat process and can withstand the high temperatures of the bake oven. Proper surface preparation and application techniques are also crucial to ensure adhesion and effectiveness.

The pre-e-coat phase involves the application of an electrically charged coating to the vehicle's metal surfaces to prevent corrosion. However, even with the protective layer of e-coat, there are vulnerable areas where water and other environmental elements may penetrate. This is where seam sealers come into play.

Pre-e-coat seam sealers have two significant functions. They function as an added barrier against corrosion and contribute to the vehicle's structural integrity.

Happy New Year! We hope you and your family had a joyous and rejuvenating holiday season.  

The new year is a time when many commit to resolutions. We’re no exception at Austin Hardware®. So here are our five resolutions for 2024. 

#1 More New Solutions for You 

Our engineers will continue to work with customers to understand their needs and goals and design or reinvent products to help meet them. Our Austin Guaranteed Engineered Solutions™ portfolio stands as a testament to that commitment. With several new products in the pipeline, we’re excited about what the new year will bring. 

#2 Redesigned Website 

We’re revamping our website to make doing business with us online faster and easier than ever. The project is in an early stage, but we expect to launch later in the year, so stay tuned. 

#3 Getting the Basics Right 

While many companies get caught up in their revenue goals, they lose sight of doing the basics right. To borrow a sports metaphor, the “blocking and tackling” of their business. At Austin, we strive to get those basics right. Things like having the right stock on the shelves. Packing and shipping your orders with care and on time. Fair pricing for challenging economic times. We’ve never lost sight of that and resolve that we never will.  

Happy Holidays from Austin Hardware!

Wow, 2023 was quite a year. Thankfully, our employee teams rallied yet again and delivered for our customers and supply partners when it mattered most. We are well over a year past the worst of the pandemic, but it hasn’t gotten any easier to operate or perform. Our employees feel pressure from all sides, our vendors still have isolated challenges to work through, and our customers are trying to catch up with demand.

Austin Hardware is in the middle of most of these scenarios, and we are striving to support, meet, and, where possible, exceed expectations. Thankfully, despite the challenges, we are executing well. We have more inventory now than ever in our history, our fill rates improve annually, we have exceeded our sales plan, and we have worked with our supply partners to stabilize costs for our customers.

For 2024, it looks like more of the same. We are forecasting growth driven by demand for new products and increasing build rates that will undoubtedly bring challenges to be solved. We are confident that our employees and supply partners will work proactively to supply our products on time. When challenges present themselves, our tenured, knowledgeable employee teams will find a way to deliver an acceptable solution. 

We understand and value the importance of our employees, our customers, and our supply partners. As we wrap up 2023 and look forward to 2024, we are very thankful for the opportunity to support our employees, serve our customers, and promote our supply partners.

Best wishes to all. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Sincerely,
Bill Stambaugh

President of Austin Hardware®

Silicone, Silane-modified, and Polyurethane are some of the primary polymers that make up different types of sealants and adhesives. Each brings unique properties, making each of them better suited for different applications. 

While 2023 is winding down, at Austin Hardware, we’re working on some exciting new solutions for our customers that we will be presenting at trade shows in early 2024. Here’s a look at where we’ll be after the new year and the innovative products we look forward to sharing with you.   

Bond strength is a comprehensive measure of an adhesive's ability to hold two substrates together. It measures the resistance to separation and is affected by various factors, including the type of adhesive used, the bonding surface preparation, and the bonding process.

To fully understand the bond strength of an adhesive, it's necessary to understand the types of stress imparted on adhesive joints. The most common stresses include shear, peel, tensile, compression, and cleavage.

All these terms relate to the integrity of adhesive joints while measuring different strength aspects of the adhesive's performance. Below is a summary of each.

Shear strength measures an adhesive's resistance to forces parallel to the bonded surfaces. It represents the adhesive's ability to withstand pull directed across the adhesive, forcing the substrates to slide over each other. It is commonly tested by subjecting the bonded materials to a force applied parallel to the adhesive joint. A strong adhesive joint should exhibit both high bond and shear strength.

A Message from Austin Hardware's president, Bill H. Stambaugh

Today, I would like to thank and recognize several groups of people who are making a difference. Austin Hardware is in our 64th year of operation, and the attitude of service, our Customer First strategy, our employees, and our customers have sustained us over the years. 

First, I am thankful for Austin Hardware's employee Teams who have supported, nurtured, and listened to each other, our customers, and our vendor partners over our 63-year history. While most of our employees have over a decade of service to our customers, we have hired new talent in every department within the company. Our talented employees are delivering results for our customers and making our company better. Our employee teams' dedication to serving our customers, enhancing logistics, solving problems, and adding value is the fuel that ignites our passion for improving our customer's businesses and products.  

In the worlds of construction, manufacturing, and DIY projects, sealants and adhesives play an essential and pivotal role in ensuring structural integrity, preventing leaks, and bonding materials together. However, navigating the sea of sealant and adhesive terminology can be daunting. Understanding the terminology related to sealants and adhesives is essential for making informed decisions. To help you through the process, we have provided a comprehensive guide to some of this field’s most common terms and concepts.