Evonik: New products for the adhesives industry

• Centered on market requirements
• Focus on the megatrend of resource efficiency

When Evonik Industries opens its booth for visitors at the European Coatings Show, the experts for adhesive raw materials will be presenting numerous innovations and product highlights. These include, for example, a new addition to the product family of amorphous poly alpha olefins. Under the name VESTOPLAST® W-1750, Evonik is marketing for the first time a stable water-based dispersion with a solid content of almost 50 percent as a supplement to the thermoplastic and reactive grades. This is particularly suitable for filament fixation in carpet manufacture, coatings for corrosion protection or for cardboard packaging made from recycled paper, and bonding of textiles in the automotive industry. The Easy Peel Package, also from the VESTOPLAST® product family, will be launched on the market as an innovative form of packaging for the silane-modified reactive VESTOPLAST® 206. Its special feature is that it can be stripped from the product simply, without leaving a residue, and with no need for prior fusion.

The third novelty is a range of flame retardant adhesive polyesters marketed under the brand name DYNACOLL®. Market requirements on the additional functionalities of an adhesive—apart from the actual adhesive properties—are also rising. Flame retardancy in particular is increasingly in demand for, for example, textile adhesives in public buildings, aircraft, and local passenger transport. By developing a polyester with inherent flame retardancy, Evonik saves adhesives producers one complete formulation step.

For Evonik’s adhesives experts, the megatrend of resource efficiency also plays an important role: "While our polyester polyols have so far been based exclusively on petrochemical raw materials, we’ve now launched a modular system of bio-based polyester polyols, with the development of DYNACOLL®Terra," says Dr. Gaetano Blanda, Vice President Adhesive Resins. "The "green" series of our DYNACOLL® product range now includes a total of nine crystalline, liquid, and amorphous grades, consisting of renewable raw materials to the extent of between 30 and 100 percent."

Another important news item for the adhesives market is the startup of the POLYVEST® HT plant in Marl, scheduled for the third quarter of this year. POLYVEST® HT, a hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene, is used mainly in sealing compounds for insulated glass windows, in adhesives for the automotive industry, and as a component of casting compounds in the electronics industry.

With its product range of heat sealing binders, moreover, Evonik is capitalizing on the trend toward PVC-free packaging in the food industry. DEGALAN® products allow direct coating of aluminum foil by heat sealing; this eliminates the need for priming with a PVC-based adhesion promoter. In addition, with the market launch of DEGALAN® VP 4240 D, Evonik makes it possible to formulate water-based heat-seal lacquers. DEGALAN® VP 4240 D is a binder developed for production of PVC-free, water-based heat-seal lacquers that bond directly to aluminum.