Water-based and solvent-free adhesives are future trends

Due to the dual considerations of environmental protection and cost, water-based adhesives and solvent-free adhesives have undoubtedly brought hope to the flexible packaging industry.

Over the years, flexible packaging composite adhesives have continuously undergone technological improvement and innovation, and the development direction of adhesives is also affecting the development trend of future flexible packaging. The new type of water-based adhesive can completely meet the requirements of the dry compounding of most flexible packaging materials, and can be used on solvent-based dry complex machines. From the perspective of the use of water-based adhesives in Europe and the United States, water-based adhesives can meet the requirements of the production process, product packaging requirements, food packaging requirements and stand the test of time.

Water-based adhesives can be used on existing solvent-based dry-repair equipment, and are suitable for many color printing plants eager to improve the situation of high residual solvent, reduce production costs, and do not need to make new equipment investment requirements. Today, in the era of low profit, water-based adhesives have created tremendous value for users. On the one hand, it solves the problem of solvent residues. On the other hand, the use of water-based adhesives does not require additional investment. This saves users hundreds. Million of equipment investment costs.

Rohm and Haas Company is an advocate and expert for water-based adhesives, and it is a global leader in the research, development, and marketing of water-based adhesives. Its introduction of water-based acrylic composite adhesives has been widely recognized by the packaging industry. Rohm and Haas also provides the market with another environmentally friendly adhesive, a solventless adhesive. In China, the absence of equipment for solvent-free adhesives and the immaturity of processes have seriously hindered the promotion of solvent-free adhesives. Since solvent-free compounding must have a dedicated solvent-free compounding device, it is not a small burden for the now-profitable color printing industry. Because of the unreasonable configuration of the non-solvent compound line introduced early in the country, approximately 60% of the equipment could not operate normally. This has also become an important reason for the development of solvent-free compounding in China. Another impediment to development is that our end customers tend to compare solvent-based composite products with solvent-free composite products. It must be admitted that, in appearance, the solvent-free composite product is indeed inferior to the solvent-based compound, because the solvent-free compound does not have a uniform and leveling process, so the product's transparency and adhesive uniformity To be worse. Of course, low-viscosity, solvent-free adhesives contribute to the apparent improvement and reduction in the amount of sizing.

Source: China Packaging News