Conagen recently announced the development of debondable hot-melt adhesives made with high-performance materials from sustainable and natural biomolecules.
Our February issue brings articles on a wide range of topics, including green formulations and applications, curing materials, transportation end uses, and much more.
To start us off, Jowat’s Gerhard Haas asks: How can we make adhesives and bonding processes more sustainable? Luckily, he also provides some insightful answers clustered under a central recommendation to seek a holistic approach to sustainability. Learn more in “Green Bonding.”
The packaging industry can address the growing market demand for sustainable packaging while also enabling operating and performance improvements that have benefits independent from sustainability.
The pandemic drove increased demand for packaging and created significant stresses on the packaging value chain, but it didn’t reduce the focus on sustainability. The industry has had to meet the various challenges of the pandemic while continuing to make progress toward a circular packaging economy.
Elastomer products are commonly produced using isoprene, butadiene, and styrene. A new renewable monomer has been used to develop unique polymers, such as liquid farnesene rubber (LFR) and a proprietary bio-based styrenic elastomer.
An announcement from H.B. Fuller regarding two acquisitions drew strong reader interest to keep the company in the top position for the second consecutive week.
Polychloroprene has a long history in the world of adhesives. It has been the primary choice when fast, high-strength, and permanent bonds are needed in variety of applications, from shoe soles to foam bonding. Historically, polychloroprene adhesives have been solvent borne, but environmental and occupational safety reasons have recently caused a shift toward waterborne polychloroprene adhesives. One of the challenges in waterborne polychloroprene dispersion adhesives has been related to the thickening of these high pH systems, as well as the storage stability.
Henkel has introduced three new low-pressure molding (LPM) materials designed to seal and protect medical devices from moisture, temperature extremes, chemicals, vibration, impact, and other environmental concerns.
Sustainable bonding requires combining the highest possible certified bio-based raw material content in the adhesives, low maintenance and energy requirements in the bonding process, high compatibility of the adhesives with existing application systems, and, especially in the packaging industry, high compatibility in terms of downstream paper recycling. All of this must be achieved at competitive prices.