Toyo-Morton Ltd., a member of the Toyo Ink Group, has developed ECOAD™ EA-B3860/EA-B1290. This high-solids, solvent-based adhesive is available for use in the dry lamination of multilayered films in flexible packaging structures. Containing over 40% coating solids by weight, the new formulations contain less solvent and thus bring down overall CO₂ emissions during lamination by roughly 25% when compared to the company’s general-purpose laminating adhesives.

The high-solids design also reportedly leads to less waste recovery and disposal for greater operational efficiencies and a cleaner work environment. Moreover, the new ECOAD systems were formulated with bio-based or renewable content of 10% by weight at the dried adhesive layer, making them a more eco-friendly alternative in packaging materials.

In recent years, packaging converters in the food, pharma, cosmetics, and other consumer and industrial markets are readily adopting sustainable materials as they seek to stay in step with the continuous push for greener end-products by industry, regulatory bodies, and consumers. To address this growing trend, Toyo-Morton reports that its engineers in Japan successfully raised the solids content of its laminating adhesive compositions to 40% in the coating process while converting a portion of raw materials with those derived from natural sources.

Typically, increasing the solids content causes the viscosity of the coating adhesive to increase, which can impair coating performance and degrade various physical properties. Toyo-Morton, by applying its proprietary polymer design technology, was reportedly able to eliminate these tradeoffs and achieve both high solids and bio-based content without compromising on performance.

“With the new ECOAD laminating adhesive systems, we were able to respond to our customers’ requirements for reduced use of hazardous chemicals at the raw materials sourcing stage and for improved processing efficiency, while actively applying renewable raw materials to the extent possible,” said Satoshi Maeda, general manager of Toyo-Morton’s technical department. “At Toyo-Morton, we are committed to developing products that reduce the environmental footprint of customers and to lowering CO₂ emissions of our products throughout their entire life cycle in accordance with ongoing life cycle assessment analysis.”

For more information, visit www.toyoink.jp/en/solution/biomass.