What Was, What’s New, and What’s Next in Corrugating Adhesives
Sustainability and recyclability continue to be critical for adhesives in packaging applications, as does the need to continually improve efficiency and reduce cost.
As the corrugating industry’s workhorse, adhesives are diverse and cover a wide range of chemistries, forms, applications, and necessities. Packaging itself varies from heat-sealed polymers to plastics, foils, and paperboard. Whether rigid or flexible, packaging can provide barrier protection, strength, and aesthetics to the product design. Each type and subtype of packaging requires different adhesive solutions, ranging from quick-setting hot melts, aqueous laminating glues, pressure-sensitive tapes or films, and even solvent-based adhesives in extreme cases.
These ready-to-use adhesives make up the bulk of finishing adhesives used in package formation (whether folding boxes or sealed containers). However, most of the packaging that enables commerce still relies on a core structure: the shipping container, or typical corrugated box.