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Purelam Fastcure is just right for bonding flexible packaging materials
The challenge
Flexible packaging converters had no choice but to work with aliphatic urethanes that have a three- to 10-day cure/drying time at room temperature. Using a fast-curing product meant shutting down production lines more frequently to clean the equipment. Slower-curing adhesives solved that problem, but created more lag time, causing inventory backups and lost productivity. Force-curing these adhesives was time-consuming, cost more and used up production space.
The Ashland answer
Our experts developed Purelam Fastcure™, a two-component, solvent-free, aliphatic polyurethane adhesive system suitable for bonding flexible packaging materials.
The Ashland advantages
Our Purelam Fastcure system helps customers extend the run time of their printers and shorten the cure time of their packaging to within 24 to 48 hours of printing.
Narrow-web customers can produce smaller quantities of flexible packages at very competitive costs, allowing a smaller manufacturer to emulate a larger manufacturer’s package and graphic shelf appeal.
Our adhesive also enables converters to expand their food-packaging opportunities, including:
| • Boil-in-bag products • Microwavable products • Coffee • Fresh-cut produce • Confectioneries • Snack foods • Bottle labels |
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Aliphatic solvent-free adhesives are a specialty segment of the total laminating market. There are several key features of Purelam Fastcure that make it a viable choice for the industry:
UV stability – Of all the factors involved in ultraviolet (UV) light resistance, there are three that figure most prominently -- thickness, opacity and the use of stabilizers.
"This 'outdoor' bag application requires an adhesive with good UV stability. Our product is also 100 percent reactive, requiring no solvents or water. And it provides very good bond strength," said Randy Johnson, technical director, Laminating Adhesives and Coatings.
Environmental friendliness – Aromatic amines are a class of chemicals found in the plastic and chemical industries as byproducts of the manufacturing of compounds such as polyurethane foams, dyes, pesticides, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.
“This environmentally friendly technology produces no aromatic amines; and with its extended pot life, the converter will reduce overall process and energy costs,” said Dave Hatgas, director of sales for Specialty Polymers and Adhesives.
In addition, there is almost none (or only minimal) misting in the application of Ashland's laminating adhesives. This is important because misting is an inhalation danger and clogs ventilation filters.
Produced at our facility in Ashland, Ohio, USA, Purelam Fastcure is also compliant with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a variety of end-use products. It is used in food and industrial flexible packaging applications that require an aliphatic polyurethane chemistry to prevent the formation of aromatic amine extractables or require high resistance UV weatherability.
Excellent compatibility with printing inks – Ashland's solvent-free laminating adhesive has improved performance on water-based inks. It is less aggressive and provides better resistance to smearing printed films.
Further, the adhesive is more robust to minor amounts of contaminants and polyvinyl butyral (PVB) ink. PVB is a resin usually used for applications that require strong binding, optical clarity, adhesion to many surfaces, toughness and flexibility.
