Dennison Materials Europe keeps its finger on the pulse in the world of adhesives
There are few technical achievements from the Stone Age that are more indispensable than ever today, and will continue to be so in the future. One of these is adhesives. In this domain, Avery Dennison is making innovation history in the 21st century.
Adhesives are almost as old as mankind itself. For example, Neanderthals are said to have glued together stones and pieces of wood with pitch extracted from birch bark to make tools. Over the course of millennia, the inventive feat of our ancestors has developed into a cutting-edge technology whose products have become an indispensable part of life.
Adhesives from Switzerland for Europe
The global market leader in the area of self-adhesive products such as labels, films, textiles, packaging and much more is the US company Avery Dennison, which is also one of the most important suppliers in this market segment in Europe. The acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesives required for production in the European factories are Made in Switzerland: they are produced on reactors for polymerisation at the Kreuzlingen factory.
Not all adhesives are the same
The output includes a wide range of pressure-sensitive adhesives with different properties for numerous specific applications: the main focus is on the areas of Permanent and Removable. One of the company’s specialities is crystal-clear adhesives for clear-on-clear applications, where transparent labels are applied to transparent glass or plastic containers. Adhesives must meet special requirements when labelled products are exposed to extreme environmental conditions. Blood reserves, for example, are sometimes stored at temperatures as low as -196°C.
Expansion of production capacity
As the applications for acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesives become increasingly diverse, demand is also growing. Plant Engineer René Kremer: «We kept running into bottlenecks with our production capacities. So we applied to the Group for the construction of another reactor line, which was approved. The preparatory work is now well under way. The construction of the reactor is in full swing.»
New possibilities in valve technology with Bachofen
In polymerisation, the precision of the valve technology plays a key role, because the end product must meet the required specifications exactly. Since the new acquisition of valve technology triggers a high investment requirement in projects of this magnitude, the decision must be carefully considered. Bachofen took a close look at the process and proposed a solution to Avery Dennison’s engineers that was superior to the valves in the existing reactors. The customer was open to sound arguments and was won over by the technical advantages of the ATEX-certified ball sector and sliding gate valves from Schubert & Salzer.