Case Study: Keeping Odor and Flames at Bay with VAE Dispersions
New VAE dispersions have been developed for low-emission carpet applications.
The choice of binders plays a key role in many applications and industries. Binders based on vinyl acetate-ethylene copolymers (VAE) have traditionally only been seen as a niche product, specifically in the carpet industry. Yet VAE dispersions, including the recently developed VINNAPAS® CA 55 from Wacker, offer a variety of advantages over traditionally used latex in carpet backings: their price is more stable and they emit hardly any volatile organic compounds (VOCs), provide greater flame-retardance, are easy to process—and are almost odorless.
“The typical smell that usually pervades a room for days after carpeting has been fitted is due to conventional styrene-butadiene (SB) latex binders,” explains Holger Künstle, Ph.D., who oversees Wacker’s carpet applications lab in Burghausen, Germany.