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Achievements
3M (NYSE: MMM), formerly Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, is an $18 billion company with 67,000 employees worldwide. 3M is one of 30 companies whose stock compose the Dow Jones Industrial Average and is a component of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
Known for its innovative products, 3M has exhibited remarkable resiliency over the past century. By exercising creativity and initiative through its diverse technology platforms, 3M expands and combines technologies to create products that meet customers’ needs. For example, 3M’s early products were based on three technologies: abrasives, adhesives, and coatings. These technologies led to the development of sandpaper, which the automotive industry used for metal finishing, and masking tape, which was created in 1925 as a solution for painting two-tone automobiles. Scotch® Masking tape set the stage for thousands of other products that 3M would introduce. Today, Scotch brand Tapes continue to reinvent themselves, from the original masking tape to cellophane tape to the recent addition of Scotch® Pop-up Tape.
3M adhesive technology also led to the development of Post-it® Notes, which revolutionized communications. 3M’s adhesive expertise expanded into the medical and surgical markets, initially developing medical tapes and disposable surgical drapes and more recently bringing consumers Nexcare™ products, a family of first-aid solutions.
3M also applied its understanding of coatings and adhesives to the transportation market and created 3M™ Scotchlite™ Reflective Sheeting, which helps to make highways safer by increasing visibility. This same technology is also used in fabric to increase pedestrian visibility.
3M’s more than 30 technology platforms are the core of the company’s innovation. These technologies range from adhesives, abrasives, and precision coatings to fiber optics, drug delivery systems, and fuel cells. The entrepreneurial spirit on which the company was founded continues as 3M’s scientists and engineers combine and apply its core technologies to design solutions that solve everyday problems and make life easier for its customers.
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