Uta Sundermeier
Senior Manager Tech Scouting & Debonding, Henkel
Dr. Sundemeier is a senior manager at Henkel’s Adhesive Innovation Team, with 20+ years experience in R&D and innovation strategy.
Debondable Adhesives as Enabler of Circularity
Pioneers at heart for the good of generations, is a common driving force across Henkel. Consequently, over the past years Henkel has been proven to be a leading figure in tackling sustainability multifacetedly and supports its customers and partners in enabling their sustainability ambitions to close the loop at different stages ranging from transforming production sites to be carbon neutral to enabling debond-on-demand solutions.
Due to their light, efficient and effective bonding capability, adhesives are more economical than many mechanical alternatives, but disassembling adhesive-joined parts can be challenging. Consequently, many products end up in landfills. Emerging developments in debond-on-demand adhesives, which use a variety of trigger mechanisms to facilitate debonding, are showing great promise in allowing disassembly for product repair and component parts recycling or reuse. The presentation will show various mechanisms for adhesive debonding, challenges and solutions, with focus on certain applications. One example is an innovative debonding primer, co-developed by Henkel and Applus+ Rescoll.
A joint presentation with Maxime Olive, R&D Engineer, Applus+ Rescoll
Breakout IX – Debonding Strategies – 12 September 2025 – 09:00 – 09:30 – Room 1