Click Bond connects with market

Producing, selling and distributing a small, simple product can become a thriving business if you have enough patience.

That's the case for Charlie Hutter and his wife Collie, who founded and own Carson City-based Click Bond Inc.

Click Bond produces tiny adhesive fasteners that bond components on military and commercial vehicles such as tanks, submarines, planes, helicopters, buses and racecars.

They are also used on other products ranging from satellites and sporting goods.

The fasteners revolutionized the construction of these mechanisms by providing a way to bond components that's more efficient, more effective and easier to install than traditional nuts and bolts.

These fasteners are made of plastic or metals and vary in size and shape.

They usually are no bigger than an inch or two and often resemble a thumbtack.

Since its inception in 1987, Click Bond has grown from a single-office plant with four employees to five buildings and 100 employees.

"This business took a long time to build," said Charlie Hutter.

"It took a lot more time, money and attention that I ever imagined."

The effort was well worth it.

Click Bond's customers include Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, British Aerospace and stretch across 25 countries.

"We have a customer base in the thousands," said Jim Stemler, vice president of sales.

"I spend the first few hours of the day just on the phone internationally." That customer base continues to grow.

Stemler said the company hopes to expand its international trade to Europe and particularly Asia but admits it's difficult because some foreign companies prefer to use homegrown products.

"It's still a hard sell," Stemler said.

"People want success stories before they buy your product."

One seemingly small thing that has helped the company succeed is improved freight capabilities in Carson City.

Click Bond makes approximately 30 to 40 shipments a day to customers.

"When we first moved here, there was no fast air freight," Hutter said.

"Having that developed has made things much more plausible."

Lately, the atmosphere around Click Bond has been frenzied because of the war in Iraq.

Hutter said the company has been swamped with inquiries from defense contractors building new military vehicles.

Click Bond started as a subsidiary of Physical Systems Inc.

Hutter, a physicist, also started and operated Physical Systems, which researched and developed products for defense and commercial transportation industries.

One idea that Hutter developed was a "click patch" that he used to repair frequent gas tank leaks in his own airplane.

Hutter patented the idea, made 100 duplicates of his click patch and soon found a customer.

"When the new F-16 fighter jets were first delivered to Edwards Air Force Base (in Southern California), I got a call saying, 'Charlie, get out here with those patches'," Hutter said.

"Apparently they had developed leaks."

The patches, an adhesive that bonds to the outside of the plane, solved the problem.

Since then, Hutter has been granted more than 100 patents, and first thought he could sell them to manufacturers, but he found little interest.

Hutter moved Physical Systems to Carson City from Burbank, Calif.

in 1979 after finding the business climate more enticing.

Click Bond was born in 1987 as a subsidiary of Physical Systems to market the patents.

Click Bond is experimenting with fastening systems for new markets such as automobile manufacturing.

Despite a recently slow economy, Hutter is pleased with the growth of the company "We've doubled our output each year for the past three years," Hutter said.

"I can't complain."