Synthetic labelling adhesives with no limits

German producer Henkel has developed a new range of high performance synthetic adhesives for glass bottle labelling.

The brewing industry has relied for many years on tried and trusted waterbased casein adhesives to label its glass beverage bottles. Constantly rising prices for casein are, however, driving up the costs for these conventional labelling adhesives. Given that casein is a raw material derived from cow’s milk, the beverage industry’s adhesives budgets are also affected by sharp periodic swings. The logical alternative is to use adhesives based on synthetic polymers, which offer the additional advantages of longer storage stability and lower consumption. Up to now, however, the products available on the market showed certain limitations when compared directly with casein adhesives.

Henkel claims to have achieved a technological breakthrough with its new casein-free product series, Optal XP.

In extensive long-term tests, the company says, the adhesives satisfied expectations in all respects. In addition to wet tack strength, the synthetic Optal XP adhesives have a high resistance to ice-water and condensation and, therefore, exhibit good adhesion to chilled glass surfaces. They also offer economic and ecological processing advantages when it comes to labelling re-usable bottles as deficits previously experienced with casein-free labelling adhesives have been overcome through significantly improved cleaning and wash-off performance.

1 January 2011 - Felicity Murray