《New directions in adhesives for the beverage industry》：
The main area of application is naturally in the labelling and packaging segment. For these areas there are two types of adhesive technology which offer themselves. On the one hand, water based adhesives, either synthetic or based on natural renewable raw materials and on the other hand, hot melt adhesives, of which there are many different types depending on the environment they are to be applied in.
Accordingly, the demands of the beverage industry have diversified and in the past few years we have observed the development of new interesting trends within this market. On the one side, it is ever more important to produce ever more effective and economical adhesives, on the other side is the ecological aspect, a consideration which has been gaining a lot of momentum. In this respect there are many factors that have become vital for adhesive producers. Amongst them are the use of renewable resources and the biodegradability of the products and also on the production side the economisation of the use of resources.
The most obvious way to optimise workflows in the beverage industry is to reduce the consumption of resources. Here there are three possible op- tions that present themselves: time, energy and water. Saving time is no new concept, but as always a very important one. The avoidance of delays in the production cycle is a significant driving force for adhesive producers as well as suppliers of machines, raw materials, packaging and consumables in order to make constant improvements to the process flow. This constant desire for improvement in both production optimisation and innovative product development was and is a strong motivation for cph, combined with our continuous striving for the improvement of existing products and the creation of new ones. Water based adhesives which do not contaminate labelling machines and that are able to restart immediately after stoppages without the need for extra cleaning are classic examples of such optimised products. Through the targeted use of specific adhesives, tremendous savings in water consumption can be achieved. For example, in the labelling of returnable glass bottles, the washing off of labels and adhesives is a considerable cost factor in recycling the bottles for reuse. The longer the bottle needs to be washed to remove the label, the more time, energy and water are needed, not to mention the huge amount of waste water proceeds. Many acrylate based adhesives contaminate the water in the washing machines far more than casein based adhesives, which leads to greater effluent treatment costs. Acrylates are oil-based polymers that can lead to build ups of deposits in bottle washing machines, causing breakdowns and failures, their extra strain on the environment should also be considered. The possibly lower prices of acrylate based adhesives can be negated by the potential future on costs. Labelling adhesives based on casein, a biodegradable, renewable raw material are often far easier to wash off than the synthetic alternatives, which in addition to saving time, also saves water, minimises pollution and saves costs.
The initial higher procurement costs can be more than recovered in the avoidance of the expenses on costs described above and lead to an overall more cost effective process. The principle of “Total-cost-in-use”, the overview of the total cost of the operation, enables a better general overview of the ‘big picture’ of the production process and the real value of the product. The use of innovative hot-melt adhesives also allows users to save time in particular stages of production. Cph newly introduced a low temperature hot-melt adhesive for packaging; Deepmelt 95. It requires considerably less melting time, making the machines ready for use faster than conventional hot melts. The lower working temperature minimizes the wear on the applicators, reducing maintenance costs and downtime of the machines.
These characteristics also lead to a significant reduction in energy costs as the reduced melt temperature obviously requires less energy to get it into usable form. Whilst normal hot melt adhesives require temperatures of around 160 °C prior to application, Deepmelt 95 is ready at 100 °C, which achieves proven savings of 40 %! That the lower application temperature is also an additional safety factor in the working environment is an added bonus.
As with icebergs, under the tip of a cheaper adhesive one can find a lot of potential problems and hidden costs. More and more responsible companies are moving away from the cheapest of products to products that really save money and offer sustainability. Here we are looking at the features, advantages and benefits of the product: the so called „added values, which on first look are not so obvious but on analysis justify the higher initial price. As discussed at the beginning, topics like environmental friendliness and especially sustainability have increasingly come into the public focus. Sustainable development being defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (source: Bruntland report, United Nations 1987).
Cph, as one of the first companies in general, has been offering adhesives based on renewable materials and free of heavy metals, phenols, formaldehyde and harmful additives like TMDD, since 1984. Initially, cph was ridiculed for this stance, but since then, a lot of major companies are making these themes front and center of their marketing campaigns, either out of conviction or because of pressure form the market, more specifically the consumers. Leaving the reason for this change of heart aside, it is a change that can only be warmly welcomed. Sustainability requires the fulfilment of three criteria: ecological, economical and social sustainability. Only when products meet these criteria can they be described as sustainable.
An example: an affordable product (economical), that is made from re- newable assets (ecological) but which is produced under conditions that jeopardise the health of the employees (social) cannot be described as a sustainable product. The term sustainability contains an interesting but also complicated concept, the fulfilment of which is associated with many benefits.
The future will see the increasing importance of environmental issues, ie. the ability of companies to supply biodegradable products that are based on renewable resources. This goes from recycled PET for bottles through the recycling of paper or paper from sustainable forestry in the manufac- ture of packaging, to the adhesives which hold all these products together. In the case of water based adhesives, in addition to the previously mentioned requirements of the customer, there are new obligatory legislative changes due to a paradigm shift, relating to the individual constit- uents. Even in the case of low pollutant casein based adhesives the demand for borax free products is making its voice heard. A change in the law defining zinc as a heavy metal has lead to research into acceptable alternatives. Naturally, the properties of the adhesives, in spite of these changes should remain as they were and ideally, the newly developed products should be more commercially acceptable than their counter- parts.
cph Germany can already fulfil the majority of these criteria with the Ecocoll-series (Eco= eco- logic and economic). In the future a new tech- nology of protein based adhesives will serve even more technical and economical demands. Packaging and labelling can only be environmentally friendly if it can be recycled, or if it is biodegradable. Even though we only supply a small component of the packaging, we feel it is important to play our part in this.
This includes products which previously had nothing to do with biodegradability such as hot melt adhesives, with which the boxes, cartons and packaging are processed. Recycling plants have problems removing adhesive residues from the paper, which can only be done in a complicated and cost intensive process. If one could develop fully biodegradable packaging, including the hot melt adhesive, then the whole package could be composted without any problems. Up to now, hot melt adhesives are based on mineral oil products and as such are not easily biode- gradable. cph Germany is a pioneer in the area of environmentally friendly, biodegradable, water based labelling adhesives and is bringing these values of innovation and environmental friendliness, which have been cultivated for over 30 years, to the realm of hot melt adhesives as well.
In this context, a cooperation between cph and notable chemical companies, resulted in a first product named Commitmelt, a hot melt adhe- sive with a biobased conent of approx. 70% and a high potential of being completely biodegrad- able. In the future, we will fortify our efforts to develop further biodegradable hotmelt adhesives based on renewable resources.
《New directions in adhesives for the beverage industry》：
The main area of application is naturally in the labelling and packaging segment. For these areas there are two types of adhesive technology which offer themselves. On the one hand, water based adhesives, either synthetic or based on natural renewable raw materials and on the other hand, hot melt adhesives, of which there are many different types depending on the environment they are to be applied in.
Accordingly, the demands of the beverage industry have diversified and in the past few years we have observed the development of new interesting trends within this market. On the one side, it is ever more important to produce ever more effective and economical adhesives, on the other side is the ecological aspect, a consideration which has been gaining a lot of momentum. In this respect there are many factors that have become vital for adhesive producers. Amongst them are the use of renewable resources and the biodegradability of the products and also on the production side the economisation of the use of resources.
The most obvious way to optimise workflows in the beverage industry is to reduce the consumption of resources. Here there are three possible op- tions that present themselves: time, energy and water. Saving time is no new concept, but as always a very important one. The avoidance of delays in the production cycle is a significant driving force for adhesive producers as well as suppliers of machines, raw materials, packaging and consumables in order to make constant improvements to the process flow. This constant desire for improvement in both production optimisation and innovative product development was and is a strong motivation for cph, combined with our continuous striving for the improvement of existing products and the creation of new ones. Water based adhesives which do not contaminate labelling machines and that are able to restart immediately after stoppages without the need for extra cleaning are classic examples of such optimised products. Through the targeted use of specific adhesives, tremendous savings in water consumption can be achieved. For example, in the labelling of returnable glass bottles, the washing off of labels and adhesives is a considerable cost factor in recycling the bottles for reuse. The longer the bottle needs to be washed to remove the label, the more time, energy and water are needed, not to mention the huge amount of waste water proceeds. Many acrylate based adhesives contaminate the water in the washing machines far more than casein based adhesives, which leads to greater effluent treatment costs. Acrylates are oil-based polymers that can lead to build ups of deposits in bottle washing machines, causing breakdowns and failures, their extra strain on the environment should also be considered. The possibly lower prices of acrylate based adhesives can be negated by the potential future on costs. Labelling adhesives based on casein, a biodegradable, renewable raw material are often far easier to wash off than the synthetic alternatives, which in addition to saving time, also saves water, minimises pollution and saves costs.
The initial higher procurement costs can be more than recovered in the avoidance of the expenses on costs described above and lead to an overall more cost effective process. The principle of “Total-cost-in-use”, the overview of the total cost of the operation, enables a better general overview of the ‘big picture’ of the production process and the real value of the product. The use of innovative hot-melt adhesives also allows users to save time in particular stages of production. Cph newly introduced a low temperature hot-melt adhesive for packaging; Deepmelt 95. It requires considerably less melting time, making the machines ready for use faster than conventional hot melts. The lower working temperature minimizes the wear on the applicators, reducing maintenance costs and downtime of the machines.
These characteristics also lead to a significant reduction in energy costs as the reduced melt temperature obviously requires less energy to get it into usable form. Whilst normal hot melt adhesives require temperatures of around 160 °C prior to application, Deepmelt 95 is ready at 100 °C, which achieves proven savings of 40 %! That the lower application temperature is also an additional safety factor in the working environment is an added bonus.
As with icebergs, under the tip of a cheaper adhesive one can find a lot of potential problems and hidden costs. More and more responsible companies are moving away from the cheapest of products to products that really save money and offer sustainability. Here we are looking at the features, advantages and benefits of the product: the so called „added values, which on first look are not so obvious but on analysis justify the higher initial price. As discussed at the beginning, topics like environmental friendliness and especially sustainability have increasingly come into the public focus. Sustainable development being defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (source: Bruntland report, United Nations 1987).
Cph, as one of the first companies in general, has been offering adhesives based on renewable materials and free of heavy metals, phenols, formaldehyde and harmful additives like TMDD, since 1984. Initially, cph was ridiculed for this stance, but since then, a lot of major companies are making these themes front and center of their marketing campaigns, either out of conviction or because of pressure form the market, more specifically the consumers. Leaving the reason for this change of heart aside, it is a change that can only be warmly welcomed. Sustainability requires the fulfilment of three criteria: ecological, economical and social sustainability. Only when products meet these criteria can they be described as sustainable.
An example: an affordable product (economical), that is made from re- newable assets (ecological) but which is produced under conditions that jeopardise the health of the employees (social) cannot be described as a sustainable product. The term sustainability contains an interesting but also complicated concept, the fulfilment of which is associated with many benefits.
The future will see the increasing importance of environmental issues, ie. the ability of companies to supply biodegradable products that are based on renewable resources. This goes from recycled PET for bottles through the recycling of paper or paper from sustainable forestry in the manufac- ture of packaging, to the adhesives which hold all these products together. In the case of water based adhesives, in addition to the previously mentioned requirements of the customer, there are new obligatory legislative changes due to a paradigm shift, relating to the individual constit- uents. Even in the case of low pollutant casein based adhesives the demand for borax free products is making its voice heard. A change in the law defining zinc as a heavy metal has lead to research into acceptable alternatives. Naturally, the properties of the adhesives, in spite of these changes should remain as they were and ideally, the newly developed products should be more commercially acceptable than their counter- parts.
cph Germany can already fulfil the majority of these criteria with the Ecocoll-series (Eco= eco- logic and economic). In the future a new tech- nology of protein based adhesives will serve even more technical and economical demands. Packaging and labelling can only be environmentally friendly if it can be recycled, or if it is biodegradable. Even though we only supply a small component of the packaging, we feel it is important to play our part in this.
This includes products which previously had nothing to do with biodegradability such as hot melt adhesives, with which the boxes, cartons and packaging are processed. Recycling plants have problems removing adhesive residues from the paper, which can only be done in a complicated and cost intensive process. If one could develop fully biodegradable packaging, including the hot melt adhesive, then the whole package could be composted without any problems. Up to now, hot melt adhesives are based on mineral oil products and as such are not easily biode- gradable. cph Germany is a pioneer in the area of environmentally friendly, biodegradable, water based labelling adhesives and is bringing these values of innovation and environmental friendliness, which have been cultivated for over 30 years, to the realm of hot melt adhesives as well.
In this context, a cooperation between cph and notable chemical companies, resulted in a first product named Commitmelt, a hot melt adhe- sive with a biobased conent of approx. 70% and a high potential of being completely biodegrad- able. In the future, we will fortify our efforts to develop further biodegradable hotmelt adhesives based on renewable resources.