Humans have a long history of using wood adhesives. Adhesive factories were established in Europe and the United States during the 17th and 18th centuries; by the early 19th century, commercial casein products had appeared in Europe, marking the growing sophistication of commercial adhesive production. Synthetic resins entered the adhesive sector in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In the 1930s, the wood industry began using phenol-formaldehyde and urea-formaldehyde resin adhesives. This shift brought about profound changes in the manufacturing processes and structural design of wood products and subsequently fostered the development of the engineered wood industry-particularly the particleboard sector. Since the 1970s, synthetic resin adhesives have accounted for over 80% of global adhesive production, with wood adhesives playing a particularly significant role. In the 1970s, adhesives for woodworking constituted 75% of Japan's total adhesive output, while in 1978, urea-formaldehyde and phenol-formaldehyde resins used in the U.S. wood industry accounted for 37% of total thermosetting resin production.
