In essence, expensive and hard-to-maintain hot melt systems can be replaced with two simple components — a heat exchanger and a heated dispensing head. Fusion melting of the liquid adhesive occurs in an environment sealed from atmospheric oxygen, so oxidative degradation is eliminated. The first-in, first-out flow characteristics of an in-line heat exchanger minimize the time the adhesive is exposed to melt temperature, so thermal degradation is greatly reduced. These two factors make adhesive char and nozzle plugging very unlikely. The costs of line downtime caused by char-plugged nozzles are very high, but so are the manpower and spare-parts costs necessary to avoid them.
The new liquid adhesive greatly simplifies the process of thermoplastic adhesive application. All the benefits of hot melts stay, but the high cost of constant operator attention, maintenance, spare parts and equipment failure disappear.
Formulations for packaging are available now. Worldwide patents have been applied for. Licensing opportunities are available for formulation and application technology.
