UV Acrylics: Re-Engineering for High Performance Applications in Tapes

Presented by Nicolas Velez, Henkel Corporation

UV acrylic hot-melt adhesives have been in the industry for many years and are seen to be the future of the label and tape applications due to its high-end performance, ease of use and cost efficiencies. Previously, the applications these adhesives could go into were limited by the few free radical base resin grades available. A new approach of re-engineering the polymer from the ground up has allowed new grades to emerge and reach higher performance applications. In this process, the ability to create a UV acrylic adhesive with ultra-low glass transition temperature (Tg) has enabled UV adhesives to go into building and construction applications such as flashing tapes, direct skin contact in medical tapes and specialty deep freeze labels. Also, the development of industrial tapes towards the automotive foam tapes and how they match up to the industry SBA standards. The development approach, end-use application with their key performance and advantages will be discussed.