Adhesive tape field experts are set to educate industry newcomers on one of the global economy’s hottest technologies at Afera’s 9thedition of the Tape College. With the event right around the corner, a few of our speakers have offered their thoughts and potential takeaways from their upcoming presentations:
Made to Stick: a general introduction to tapes
Business publications have adopted terms like “stickiness”, “bonding” and “made to stick”, although they do not discuss applications in bonding technology. What magic is pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) technology creating in our everyday lives? Why are some surfaces made to stick, while some bonds don’t survive? And why does the world need tapes and need them in more applications nowadays? Where can they be found, and how can we ensure they become even more widespread? This will be covered and some brainteasers offered up.
What speaker Evert Smit (Lohmann GmbH & Co. KG) says:
Speaking at the Tape College enables me to show our audience our exciting industry and great, family-like culture in which we get to shape our future by learning and working together. As far as the business goes, I see many trends building in importance, including the Circular Economy, regulatory affairs and functionalities in addition to bonding. I look forward to an audience which is energetic and optimistic and ready to develop and discuss new ideas during and after these 2 days.
An introduction to PSA tape technology
The cornerstones of tape performance are peel, creep and tack. These features are relevant for many application-related properties. During the session, participants will be guided through a variety of lifecycle requirements for PSA tape applications, e.g. hot and cold temperature resistances, UV aging and shock. This presentation provides a survey of the most important relationships between physical performance, chemical tape construction and application properties.
The lecture will align adhesive tape technology available with the demands of today and tomorrow’s industrial processes. Tape professionals should learn as much as possible about the final customer application before choosing a PSA tape product among a catalogue of possibilities available on the market.
What speaker Uwe Michel (tesa SE) says:
I’ve spent the last 10 years working in the tape world, and I am still surprised everyday how people use them. I’d like to share how interesting tape applications actually are to inspire those new to the adhesive tape community. Did you know that an average smartphone contains 500 cm2of tape? Who would have thought tapes could be such hidden champions!
Fundamental emulsion polymerisation for high-performance water-based PSAs
Eco-friendly, water-based acrylic adhesives are commonly used in PSAs in tape and label applications. Emulsion polymerisation is versatile when it comes to designing adhesives with the right performance for a broad variety of applications, ranging from very soft and sticky adhesives to adhesives with very high shear strength.
This presentation covers the introduction to fundamental emulsion polymerisation, and how the adhesive performance can be influenced by the right choice of monomers, emulsifiers, functional co-monomers, as well as formulation, into a coater-ready adhesive using wetting agents, defoamers and crosslinkers or thickeners to obtain good performance in the application and good runnability on the coater line.
What speaker Katja Greiner (Synthomer Deutschland GmbH) says:
As a raw material supplier, the trends that we see in the manufacturing of tapes:
These can all be addressed with our emulsion technology. In China, we see an increasing trend in moving away from solvent-based technology, driven by governmental directives, driving growth in water-based adhesives in this area in future. Specialty tapes still make up more than 50% of solvent-based technology, while water-based represents a very small share.
With new products from Synthomer, we can also address high-performance tapes, which are currently still using solvent-based or UV-syrup adhesives. It is therefore the right time to emphasise water-based technology as a real alternative, not only for its competitive cost but its high performance.
Chemistry of hot melt PSA formulations
An overview of adhesive raw materials and the chemistry of several PSA formulations in which tackifying resins are used will be presented. Special focus will be paid to styrene block copolymers and tackifier resins, including hydrocarbon and rosin resins, as well as their modifications.
Formulation selection criteria and tools to characterise these types of resins will be given, making it easier for formulators to choose the right resin for the right application. The interaction and compatibility of tackifying resins with several polymers will be discussed, focussing on block copolymers and their use in HMPSA formulations.
What speaker Jarno Weemers (Eastman Chemical Middelburg B.V.) says:
The best part of speaking on a larger, international stage such as Afera’s Tape College is the possibility of sharing knowledge with a broad and committed audience. This enables participants to build up a strong basis for everything there is to know about adhesives and me to give them a bit of a flavour of the chemistry behind tackifier resins.
Providing a balanced mix of fundamentals, analysis techniques and formulation selection criteria should add to participants’ understanding and help them meet future challenges in the innovative and booming field of specialty tapes.
Afera Tape College 2019 programme registration and details
