FEICA 2023 Conference and EXPO
Tarragona, Spain, 13-15 September 2023

Presentation Abstract

A structure-property study of Caprolactone technology in reactive hot melt adhesives.

As strong market drivers accelerate the growth and adoption of reactive hot melt technologies away from conventional solvent-based solutions, a study has been conducted on the use of polycaprolactone technology in reactive hot melt adhesives. By fully characterising their performance profiles, it has been demonstrated that polycaprolactone polyols provide opportunities for formulators to enhance and differentiate the performance of their polyurethane formulations.

Reactive hot melt adhesives provide advantages in a plethora of end application areas that include Edgebanding, Construction, Flat lamination, Bookbinding and Electronics. A combination of the initial recrystallisation of the adhesive post application temperature (120 – 130 ⁰C) and the subsequent polyurethane polymerisation, gives this type of adhesive platform, superior adhesion properties.
A structure and property investigation will be presented, where the influence of the caprolactone polyol molecular weight and the polymerisation initiator molecule type is varied to understand their impact on final performance.

In conjunction with the viscosity benefits of the caprolactone polyols, the presentation will explore the lap shear adhesion on various low and high surface energy substrates, thermal stability of the final adhesive, mechanical performance of cured adhesive films and the crystallization behaviour of caprolactone based reactive hot melt adhesives.