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Learn how our technical support team can help you feel confident about the performance levels in your label construction with Bostik's Technical Service Group Leader for Pressure Sensitive Adhesives, Erik Turtinen. 

As a label converter, you know it’s important to meet brand owner demands, which sometimes means reevaluating your label’s construction to provide new performance capabilities. However, changing out one variable such as facestock thickness, sustainability formulations or release liners could impact your adhesive’s overall performance.
 
Here at Bostik, we want you to know we are always here to help when you want to make a change to your label construction. Our technical support team has the expertise to help you feel confident that all your label layers are working together effectively while providing desired adhesive performance.
 
Erik Turtinen is a Technical Service Group Leader for Pressure Sensitive Adhesives at Bostik. In this Spotlight Q&A, gain insight into the value label converters can receive by working directly with their adhesive supplier throughout all steps of their manufacturing.
Q: How does your role at Bostik help label converters?
A: My role, along with the rest of the technical service team, allows us to go beyond simply selling an adhesive. Converters also get the support from experts who have tested the adhesive formulations and understand how it should run on coaters. We also use that knowledge to make sure every converter using our product gets the best performance based on how they need to use it; so, we are able to custom formulate our adhesives to make sure they work for their specific needs.
 
Q: As you begin conversations with converters about ways the Bostik technical service team can assist them, what do you want the converters to brainstorm?
A: It’s always helpful for them to think about all the label layers in their construction and what they need the adhesive to do. For example:
  • Does the adhesive need to be removable?
  • Should it be durable for outside environmental conditions?
  • Does it need to provide wash-off capabilities?
All these factors play a big role in what the adhesive formulation should include, and we can help them with those details once we determine what their priorities are for the end-use application. Overall, we value developing relationships with our customers, and those relationships occur throughout every part of their processes. We want them to know we are always here to help them address challenges along the way and avoid issues in the future.
 

"... the value of a technical expert is integral. When you’re working directly with the people who developed the adhesive, they can help you get to solutions quickly."

Q: What are challenges you often see label converters experience with testing and trialing?
A: Their struggles can vary depending on what they need:
  • Their team may be looking to see what performance results work best with different facestocks and coat weights; however, changing one part of the label impacts the performance of the adhesive or another layer.
  • Sometimes, they’re trying to test a new product and are having trouble doing so.
  • They may be trying to change something in a current label and are struggling to find success.
  • This is where the value of a technical expert is integral. When you’re working directly with the people who developed the adhesive, they can help you get to solutions quickly.
Q: What are some of the ways you provide technical solutions to label converters facing these challenges?
A: It varies on the situation, so we can help in different ways:
  • We have an in-house pilot coater for hot melt pressure sensitive adhesives, which allows our team to directly help converters with trial testing. Depending on their needs, we often coat facestock samples and share the results with them; or, sometimes, we test how their entire label construction works together with certain adhesive grades. We can either test the coating samples and they complete the trial at their location, or we can run a trial in-house at Bostik to help them save time on their production lines. We discuss these details in the starting phases and decide what will work best to make sure they can accomplish their goal while maintaining day-to-day processes. In doing so, we are able to help them reduce their overall costs.
  • Some converters also simply prefer for us to send adhesive samples so they can conduct their own testing, and we are happy to work with them on that as well.
Q: How can you assist with troubleshooting problems when the label converter is in production?
A: Our technical team supports our converters throughout all steps of their manufacturing. If they are experiencing production problems that are costing them additional downtime, we can visit their plant, identify the issue and offer recommendations on what solutions would provide the best outcome. Or, if they are launching a new or updated product on their lines, we can help them determine the best processing methods, so they can deliver products on time.
 
Q: What do you suggest converters think about when changing variables out for improved sustainability?
A: This is definitely something we’re seeing a lot more as the entire packaging industry is working to implement more sustainable benefits. Just like how we encourage converters to work with us if they want to change out a facestock, release coating and such, we also recommend they do so if they want to change a label adhesive from a PET formulation to BOPP, or go linerless for example. We can help them find the best way to do it while maintaining performance. It always starts with the initial conversation on what they are trying to accomplish, and from there, we’ll decide the best approach together.
 
 
Are you interested in speaking to our technical service team to address a challenge? Contact a Bostik expert today to learn how we can provide the expertise to enhance your product performance and processing needs.
 
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All information contained herein is believed to be accurate as of the date of publication, is provided “as-is” and is subject to change without notice. To review our full U.S. Legal Disclaimer, visit: https://bostik.com/us/en_US/privacy-policy/legal-disclaimer

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