The Benefits of Partnering with Setex Technologies

A variety of industries have discovered the benefits of partnering with Setex Technologies. Years of academic research which set out to examine how a gecko can defy gravity gave birth to Setex®. It is a dry adhesive technology supplying micro-fibrillar polymer based dry adhesives and surfaces for a wide range of product applications. It supplies innovative solutions to a diversity of products that require adhesion, gripping and fastening solutions.

Studied, researched and developed at Carnegie Mellon University, Setex® is a uniquely effective adhesive technology. From this discovery, Dr. Metin Sitti, a professor of Mechanical Engineering founded and spun out Setex Technologies, formerly known as nanoGriptech from the University in 2009. Since then, the Setex Technologies team of experts has secured multiple research awards from organizations, including the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Defense, NASA, and the PA NanoMaterials Commercialization Center.

Commercially innovative, practical, adaptable, and customizable, industries are benefiting from partnering with Setex Technologies. Industries currently using Setex® as a solution in adhesion, gripping and fastening include, medical, sports, aerospace, wearables, semiconductors, automotive and more.

Setex® Delivers a Permanent Solution For Temporary Bonding


Setex Tape is one of the amazing products developed by Setex Technologies designed for industrial manufacturing and adapted to the consumer market. This residue free, non-tacky tape provides a combination of delicate strength, flexibility, and reusability for applications such as semiconductor and glass handling. It is effectively used for mounting, packaging and throughout the biological and robotics industries.

Setex Tape is the first commercially available dry adhesive technology that supplies both a permanent and temporary bonding solution. It is a dry, residue-free adhesive that can be used repeatedly. Setex Technologies will collaborate with any partner in customizing an exclusive solution for their needs.

The Setex Team is ready to work with partners who require gravity defying slippage, adhesion, gripping power and reusability.

The Partner Process at Setex Technologies


The Setex Technology partner process includes a team of professionals who are ready to work on a comprehensive, customized solution for individualized applications. Partners with Setex reap the benefits of years of evolutionary knowledge obtained from studying the gravity defying gecko. Along with an understanding of adhesion taught by the power of nature, the Setex Technologies Team provides, planning, strategy, development, manufacturing and unique end use strategies.

Partnering with Setex Technologies begins with defining the product, uses, expectations, design, target cost, specs, manufacturing, and subassemblies needed. Once the parameters and uses of the customized partner project are completed, the design process begins.

Upon completion of the design process the prototype manufacturing begins. Setex is determined to supply the adhesion, gripping, or fastening solution that best benefits the partner’s use. Prototyping customized products for partners include, testing manufacturing solutions, along with verifying that the product exceeds expectations and is a workable solution for the needs of the partner.

The final phase is launching the product with the partner. This includes manufacturing, assembly, and training. The Setex Team follows through with end users to ensure superior quality that performs its designed functionality.

Setex Makes Products Better


Setex is involved with partners in a diversity of industries. Setex doesn’t make products, it makes them perform better. Setex benefits partners by defying gravity, preventing slippage, supplying reusable adhesion, and preparing for the future

Setex doesn’t make prosthetics, it improves how they help the person. Setex doesn’t make the earbuds, it keeps them in place. Setex doesn’t make the game, it keeps the controller in your hand.

Setex is ready to work with manufacturers and developers of products that need to defy gravity, today and tomorrow, on earth and in space.

The Great Science Behind Setex Technologies

The science behind Setex Technologies was inspired by a question proposed by one of the many wonders of nature. “How do geckos defy gravity?” The academic research and scientific experiments that set out to answer this question gave birth to Setex Technologies.

This approach of asking how and why actions in nature are possible has led to innovations that solved complex human inquiries for centuries. Leonardo da Vinci, a painter, sculptor, inventor, scientist, theatrical set director, puzzle-maker, and more often began with a simple question. His well-documented journals are filled with such inquiries as, how do birds fly, how do fish swim, how is light diffracted over distance. Over his life, he had thousands of questions on how nature worked.

Throughout his prolific and illustrious career, da Vinci spent countless hours in observance of nature. He used these observations to sharpen his skills as a painter and more. He studied the interplay of shadows and light which led to his ability to transform his artwork beyond a one-dimensional image. To achieve realistic sculptures, he observed how muscles relied on each other for movement. He used the power of observation, research, and experimentation to emulate nature.

Biometrics or Biomimicry


The process of studying how nature works and applying the answers to solving human problems is known as biometrics or biomimicry. The words are compound words taken from ancient Greek. bios translated as life and mimesis as an imitation. Simply put the words biometrics or biomimicry mean the process of imitating life.

Setex Technologies is the end result of applying biometrics to develop innovative products based on the ability of the gecko to defy gravity. The original research centered on answering that question, then developing a process that would emulate the gravity-defying ability of the gecko. This led to the breakthrough of the gecko-inspired grip and adhesion products developed by the scientists at Setex Technologies.

The Gecko Grip


The gecko does not use webs, claws, or glue to defy gravity. It has developed the powers to walk upside down, and vertically through evolution. The development of this skill was in response to its need to escape predators which it must be able to do at birth. This evolutionary ability is a complex system that encompasses, geometry, biology, physics, and chemistry working in unison.

The gecko uses the principle that negative and positive charges attract. To take advantage of this rule of physics, it relies on a complex interplay of the geometry of its feet, its toe pads, and intermolecular forces.

The toepads of the gecko have thin hairs called setae made of keratin, a structural protein, they end in smaller structures known as spatulae. The shape of the gecko toe pad combined with a positive and negative interplay between the setae, spatulae and the surface is in short how evolution has allowed the gecko to defy gravity.

University Research to Commercial Application


After answering the question, how do geckos defy gravity, the next step was how it could be imitated for solutions that help human problems. Setex Technologies was incubated from research, experimentation, and development at Carnegie Mellon University.

The result of the original inquiry and years of research and experimentation was a technology to supply micro-fibrillar polymer-based dry adhesives and surfaces for a wide range of product applications. Patented gecko-inspired Setex materials delivering products and solutions that stick, grip, and fasten with unmatched flexibility and under the most challenging circumstances emerged from academic research to commercial production.

Setex Technologies is applying the science of how geckos defy gravity to solve gripping and sticking solutions to an array of diverse industries. Setex Technologies is already supplying innovative solutions to hundreds of products and industries with many more on the horizo