Dr. Dave tackles two questions this month, one related to package stability for moisture-sensitive urethane adhesives, and the other regarding epoxy adhesives.
Question: My colleague and I are working on a unique challenge of trying to find a solution for manufacturing urethane-based adhesives that are quite sensitive to moisture exposure.
Can you recommend suitable materials for packaging a sealant that is sensitive to atmospheric moisture? Additionally, we can do accelerated humidity testing of filled packages, but how do we correlate these with shelf life?
You can obviously package your moisture-sensitive sealant in glass or metal cans or tubes, which will totally prevent moisture ingress. Aluminum tubes are widely used for this type of product, as long as you have good crimps.
In 2015, we were challenged with developing a 14-head, 140/min, continuous-motion bottle filler to fill blow-molded bottles. It was during this project that we first began to work with Morrison Container Handling Solutions, and we began to rethink how we could transfer cartridge containers through our filling systems.
Many advantages come with packaging adhesive and sealant products in sausages. Without taking any other factors into consideration, the sausage itself represents an initial cost savings of typically 25-50% compared to a conventional cartridge, depending on the type of film required.
It’s time for ASI’s annual Buyers’ Guide, a purchasing and applications resource for raw materials, equipment, and services used to manufacture adhesives and sealants, pressure sensitives, and adhesives and sealants products such as tapes and labels. The Buyers’ Guide also includes supplier details for finished adhesives and sealants.
Choosing the right pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) tape for reusable protective packaging depends on the need of the specific application and the materials that are being bonded together.
The reusable protective packaging market has grown in recent years. Not only do businesses want to safely distribute products throughout the supply chain, they want to do so in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way.
Life during COVID-19 has brought about issues that many of us never envisioned back in early March. On top of innumerable personal challenges, many of our businesses have seen true upheavals. Operating with uncertainty is always difficult, but today’s environment of constant change, ambiguity, and even conflict can lead to especially problematic decision making.
When Kermit the Frog (voiced by Jim Henson) first sang “Bein’ Green” in 1970, few consumers were concerned about climate change. Most manufacturers didn’t focus on sustainability or tout their products’ “green” qualities (if they happened to have any). Oh, how times have changed.
Currently, mastic is available to commercial and DIY consumers primarily in squeeze tubes and 10-oz cartridges. Although the sausage packaging format exists as an alternative, in a 20-oz size and a smaller “mini” option (2-3.5 oz), its availability is limited—as a stroll down the sealant aisle of Home Depot or Lowes will confirm.
Proper selection of label and labeler type enables the efficient application of labels on virtually every container shape used in the adhesives and sealants industry.
Within today’s diverse adhesive and sealants product segments, encompassing very different markets such as retail, architectural, industrial, and aerospace applications, all buyers and end users depend on clearly labeled containers. Since different label formats are available for a multitude of container geometries, it is helpful to understand the basics of labeling choices for future projects.