The Pierre Potier 2022 Prize at the French Ministry of the Economy and Finance awarded Arkema today with a medal for Bostik's innovative new adhesive developed for flexible food packaging. This is the first time Arkema's adhesives are awarded with a prize from the prestigious Pierre Potier Prize, which each year recognizes initiatives by the chemical industry to promote sustainable development.
Bostik has developed a modular adhesive system for flexible food-grade packaging that meets both food safety regulatory trends and a need to create solutions that contribute to more sustainable products. This innovation significantly improves the conventional manufacturing process for this type of food packaging by shortening the adhesive’s average setting time by a factor of two to three, for an equivalent level of performance.
Many congratulations to the R&D teams for their invention which brings genuine progress for our customers, while also making a major contribution to reducing the environmental impact of their products. A perfect illustration of Arkema’s strategy: to provide, through innovation in specialty materials, solutions for a more sustainable world.
Purbinder-CX, an innovative adhesive meeting the following specifications
- No formation of toxic substances, considered carcinogenic (aromatic amines).
- Sterilization resistance on various types of packaging, hence food products can keep longer (as with tin cans).
- Curing** takes 2 to 3 days at ambient temperature, rather than 7 to 10 days in a hot chamber, which helps reduce energy consumption and related greenhouse gas emissions.
*The Prix Potier was created in 2005 by the French Union des Industries Chimiques (UIC) and the Fédération Française des sciences pour la Chimie (FFC) under the aegis of the French Ministry for Industry to reward companies engaging in innovation in the field of sustainable development.
**Curing (or crosslinking) is a chemical reaction that induces the formation of chemical bonds between an adhesive’s two compounds in order to produce an adhesive layer with the required performance.