Chinese domestic UV/EB curing hot melt adhesive technology has made breakthrough progress

Lencolo 2023-10-14 736

With the rapid growth of the application market of hot melt adhesives, and with the encouragement and support of national policies for the new material industry, my country's hot melt adhesive technology and product performance have continued to improve, and the industry has developed rapidly.

Data shows that the output growth rate of my country's hot melt adhesive industry will exceed 4% in 2020, and the output will even increase by 12.04% in 2021. The total output value of the industry has reached nearly 25 billion yuan, making it a veritable sunrise industry.

One of the more prominent products in the hot melt adhesive industry is tape. Tape is a common product on the market and is widely used. Applying glue to the film looks simple. However, how to apply glue to the film is a highly technical process. What glue to use, how to apply it, and how to design the equipment are all innovation points.

The traditional method is to apply liquid glue on the film. However, it is difficult to apply liquid glue with a temperature above 150 degrees on the film without allowing the film to melt and deform.

The pressure-sensitive adhesive used in traditional methods is made of a mixture of organic solvents. The coating method using traditional thermal curing equipment will volatilize the organic solvent in the pressure-sensitive adhesive and consume a large amount of heat and electricity, which consumes high energy and pollutes the environment.

"UV/EB curing technology is internationally hailed as a new technology for the green industry in the 21st century." It uses ultraviolet (UV) and electron beam (EB) radiation to cure and coat hot-melt adhesives. The curing speed is fast. It can be cured within 0.05 to 0.1 seconds at the fastest and can meet the requirements of large-scale automated production lines.

More importantly, there is no solvent emission in the whole process, and no supporting solvent recovery facilities and heating facilities are required. It has the characteristics of safety, high efficiency, energy saving, low cost and low investment. And UV/EB curing hot melt adhesive can be used for coating a variety of substrates, such as non-woven fabrics, PVC, PET, rubber, paper base, cloth base, etc.

Cured hot melt adhesive is currently the most ideal "green" pressure-sensitive adhesive. It is a special-structured acrylic polymer that is widely used in various adhesive products. It is an acrylic polymer after removing the solvent. After heating and diluting It can be directly coated on the substrate, eliminating many intermediate steps in traditional heat-curing pressure-sensitive adhesive coating equipment.

UV/EB curing hot melt adhesive cross-links and solidifies the adhesive through radiation, improving the overall performance of the cured pressure-sensitive adhesive.