Dow and Nordmeccanica announce new lamination technology in solventless adhesives
Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company, and Nordmeccanica announced last week at drupa the launch of a new lamination technology, using both adhesive and machinery hardware advancements.
* Exclusive interview in the upcoming June issue of Converter *
SYMBIEXTM Solventless Adhesives, Dow’s new ultra-fast curing adhesive technology, combined with the Duplex SL One ShotTM lamination line from Nordmeccanica, redefines packaging lamination, offering converters best-in-class conversion efficiency improvements, shorter time-to-market and total conversion cost reductions.
“By combining Dow’s adhesive development know-how with Nordmeccanica’s machine pioneering, we succeeded in introducing the biggest innovation in packaging lamination in 50 years,” commented Greg Bunker, global business director for Dow Adhesives for packaging, textiles and hygiene.
“Dow and Nordmeccanica worked together to reimagine the current conventional lamination process and address some of its fundamental limitations, namely combining fast curing, which requires a fast-acting adhesive, with outstanding pot life, which requires a slower-acting adhesive,” added Vincenzo Cerciello, VP technology at Nordmeccanica Group. “With SYMBIEXTM and the Duplex SL One ShotTM laminator, we are able to slit just 90 minutes after lamination, compared to today’s 24 hour standard. This is an exciting development and game-changing innovation for the lamination adhesives market.”
Other benefits include: Conversion efficiency improvements: no mixer and no pot life concerns; lower cost-in-use: reduced line downtime and curing inventory; ability to form a package in less than one day from lamination, and achieve food compliance within one day for most film structures; increased speeds on metallised and foil laminations versus conventional solvent less; no misting and better wettability; bond-quality checking possible 30 minutes after lamination.
Compared to a conventional lamination line, the Duplex SL One ShotTM laminator features a system to handle the solventless lamination process, enabling the two adhesive components to come into contact as late as possible in the lamination process.
With two independent high-precision coating stations, the two films are pressed together only in the lamination nip station where the curing of the adhesive takes place. This process eliminates the need of a mixing unit and any pot life concerns, and offers reduced line downtime and easy cleaning.
“Prior to this technology development, if a converter needed to supply laminates with fast turnaround, they would have had to use solvent-based, water-based, or another alternative cure method. SYMBIEXTM adhesives and the DUPLEX One-ShotTM provides excellent bonding with no VOCs, much reduced energy consumption, and fast-curing enabling just-in-time delivery,” emphasised Cerciello.
You can read an exclusive interview with both Dow and Nordmeccanica about this new technology and its launch at drupa in the upcoming June edition of Converter.