The expression “old wine in new bottles” refers to dressing an old, well-worn idea in new garb. Evonik has shown that new packaging for an existing product may also represent a genuine innovation — as in the case of its easy-peel package for the moisture-curing silane-modified amorphous polyalphaolefin (APAO) VESTOPLAST® 206.
Amorphous polyalphaolefins (APAO), which Evonik markets as VESTOPLAST®, are copolymers and terpolymers of ethene, propene, and 1-butene, produced in a low-pressure polymerization process with Ziegler catalysts (see Figure 1). They offer very high thermal stability, good flexibility and very good adhesion to nonpolar surfaces. Moreover, APAO-based hot melts are formulated with lower proportions of resin compared with other classes of polymer, making these systems mostly independent of resin availability. In addition, supplies and availability of the olefin monomer raw materials are more robust and less volatile than for other base polymers.