Oct 10, 2023 - 3-5 minutes
3 Reasons You Need the Right Waterborne Acrylic PSAs for Labels
Discover the benefits of waterborne acrylic pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs) for label manufacturing. Learn how these versatile adhesives enhance sustainability, production efficiency, performance capabilities and how Bostik can help optimize your label adhesive solutions.
As a label converter, you know more brand owners are looking for adhesive solutions that provide:
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Enhanced sustainability to improve the circular economy
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Fast production speeds to get products delivered to them on time
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Wide application usage to increase performance abilities
Therefore, it’s important for you to consider how waterborne acrylic pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs) could enhance your label manufacturing and make it easy to address brand owner preferences. Gain an understanding of these adhesives and how the right ones in particular help you improve sustainability, production efficiencies and performance capabilities.
What are waterborne acrylic PSAs, and how are they used?
Waterborne acrylic PSAs are comprised of an acrylic polymer structure, specifically formulated with rheology modifiers, wetting agents and other specialty ingredients to allow for efficient coating all while maintaining the desired performance features. These PSAs remain tacky when dried and form a bond with varying surfaces when pressure is applied. Additionally, waterborne acrylic PSAs do not require ventilation and specialized storage, since there are no flammability risks. They also have a low odor, making them user-friendly for production workers. Further, waterborne acrylic PSAs can withstand a range of temperatures to provide stable adhesion in both high and low-temperature environments.
In addition to labels, waterborne acrylic PSAs are also common for tape and graphics applications, as they bond well to paper, corrugate, plastic, metal, glass and textile substrates. They can be coated using traditional processing methods, including roll coating, gravure coating or spraying while also offering simple clean-up since there are no harsh solvents.
Benefit #1: PET Recycling Capabilities to Improve Sustainability
In order for PET packaging to not contaminate the recycling stream, it is crucial to use a label adhesive solution that provides proper label wash-off capabilities. This is so the label can fully separate from the PET packaging without leaving adhesive residue behind on the packaging. Failure to cleanly wash-off can cause the PET to become hazy and yellow after going through the recycling process, diminishing its repeated use abilities. Not all adhesive technologies can offer this capability, however, which can make it challenging to improve stream effectiveness.
How the Right Waterborne Acrylic PSAs Help
Designed with PET bottles and trays in mind, the right waterborne acrylic PSAs do even more than enable the label to wash off cleanly, leaving the PET packaging free of any contaminants. They also enable:
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Decreased material use: Able to rapidly wet out silicone release liners, they can reduce overall material usage by providing longevity to labels used in interior and exterior applications, as well as saving energy usage by speeding up manufacturing processes.
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APR approval: Further, the right waterborne acrylic PSAs also meet the Association of Plastic Recycler (APR)’s Critical Guidance Criteria. This gives brand owners peace of mind that they are using an end-use label with an adhesive that is proven to properly wash-off from the package.
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Enhanced safety: When designing clear, water-resistant labels, the right waterborne acrylic PSAs are APEO (alkylphenol ethoxylate) free. This prevents the adhesive from breaking down slowly after usage or posing health risks in relation to water or the environment.
Benefit #2: Fast Processing to Improve Production Efficiencies
While it is common for large companies to utilize high-speed label processing machinery, other companies with a smaller output may also be looking to increase their speeds to become more competitive. No matter your company’s size or output, a reliable adhesive formulation with broad chemical flexibility can help you take advantage of one technology to increase processing speeds.
How the Right Waterborne Acrylic PSAs Help
Waterborne acrylic PSA technology offers several features that enable you to run high processing speeds:
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Low-coating temperature: Waterborne acrylic PSAs do not require high temperatures for curing. The water evaporation process to strengthen the initial bond is much shorter than the time required for a high-temperature curing process, which other technologies may require. This allows you to manufacture more end-use labels in a given timeframe, which can help you complete projects faster or take on more jobs and meet deadlines efficiently.
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Solventless solution: As mentioned before, waterborne acrylic PSA technology does not include solvents. This means you do not have to worry about thermal oxidizer capacity or take additional steps to burn off solvents, helping you simplify the overall production. Additionally, waterborne acrylic adhesives contain lower VOCs than solvents, which means more material can be coated before reaching local and state VOC limits.
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Range of viscosities: While waterborne acrylic PSAs generally have lower viscosity than other adhesive technologies, they can also be formulated with a range of viscosities to ensure coat ability on your unique equipment for efficient processing. This can allow you to rely on waterborne acrylic PSA technology for numerous label application needs and reduce changeouts on your production lines.
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Easy clean up: Additionally, waterborne acrylic PSA technology can be easily wiped off if there are any spills or excess adhesive during the application process. This simple cleanup prevents unwanted bonding, provides a neat application and reduces downtime.
Benefit #3: Versatility to Improve Performance Capabilities
A key way for you to meet brand owners’ evolving needs is to manufacture products that keep up with different performance requirements. This means you need an adhesive solution that offers the versatility to produce multiple products or provide a range of performance capabilities.
How the Right Waterborne Acrylic PSAs Help
Waterborne acrylic PSA technology allows for the suspension of acrylic particles and other additives, making it easy to formulate for a wide range of label applications such as packaging, automotive, construction and electronics. Cross-linking or curing agents can be selected based on the desire for hardness, adhesion and durability, which helps you address bonding needs for both permanent and removable applications. Waterborne acrylic PSAs also allow you to easily address specific application needs:
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Adjustable tack levels: The tack level within the waterborne acrylic PSA technology can increase to ensure it will adhere to a low-surface energy substrate, such as plastic, film or other difficult to bond surfaces. Likewise, it can offer low tack levels for high-energy substrates such as metals.
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Shear levels: The shear can improve waterborne acrylic PSAs’ ability to withstand stress and load over time for applications that need a durable bond. Further, shear levels will help maintain performance and ease removability when removal or repositioning is required.
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Durable adhesion: Waterborne acrylic PSAs can offer high adhesion strength, which allows them to be used when the end-use label needs a long-term bond. They also can be formulated to have reduced strength, which works out well for applications where the label needs to peel off without leaving residue behind.
Further, the right waterborne acrylic PSAs for PET packaging applications also offer all-temperature wash-off performance. By possessing a low glass transition temperature, they are able to maintain a bond even when most other adhesives lose adhesion, and therefore increase performance capabilities.
How Bostik Can Help You with Waterborne Acrylic PSA Technology
As a global adhesive provider within the Arkema Group, Bostik is committed to helping you use waterborne acrylic PSAs to improve sustainability, production efficiencies and performance capabilities. With the most robust PSA portfolio in the adhesive industry, we offer a range of waterborne acrylic PSA technology solutions for permanent and removable labels that include:
Aroset® emulsion PSA adhesives solutions are designed to meet the most stringent performance requirements on paper, film and vinyl substrates.
Flexcryl® PSA solutions provide a wide range of coater-ready formulations for label applications, including the market’s first APR-approved, all-temperature, wash-off label adhesive for PET packaging.
Encor® products offer coater-ready solutions for removable and permanent label applications, designed to address general-purpose, environmental and transparency performance needs.
Additionally, our Bostik technical service team is here to provide expertise and help you with throughout trialing processes, as well as troubleshooting during production. We can test customized formulations on our pilot equipment to ensure your label adhesive is providing the performance levels you desire.
Are you interested in learning how waterborne acrylic PSA technology can benefit your label manufacturing? Contact a Bostik expert to learn how we can help you find the right solution.
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