The drive to reduce the environmental impacts and adverse health effects of some conventional adhesive chemistry platforms has led to recent formulation innovations in polyurethane reactive (PUR) hot melt materials. PUR hot melts are used for a wide range of product assembly applications within the consumer electronics, automotive components and textile/foil industries so ensuring their sustainable development is important for climate positivity and health and safety.
This presentation will highlight two PUR hot melt formulation advances. The first is a material developed using bio-sourced ingredients that delivers better performance than that of its petrochemical-based predecessor in terms of adhesion strength, substrate compatibility, dispensing and jetting stability and AOI inspection. With no plant-derived drop-in raw material replacements, the sourcing and engineering of this formulation were challenging, but the result is a robust PUR hot melt with more than 60% bio-based content. Reduction of harmful substances is the emphasis of the second PUR hot melt development, where a novel approach has enabled a new low isocyanate (<0.1% monomer isocyanate content) PUR hot melt platform. This chemistry breakthrough has significantly reduced emissions compared to conventional formulas and is not labeled as hazardous (no HS351 designation). The materials are safe, easy to use and ecologically sustainable.