New Novel Oligomers Designed to Ease Formulating of UV/EB Laminating Adhesives, 2003 PLACE Conference & GLOBAL HOT MELT Symposium

Ultraviolet (UV) curable laminating adhesives are currently being used to bond clear films to various films, papers, and foil substrates. Typically, the adhesive is applied to the clear film and then nipped onto the second substrate surface. The adhesive is then cured using UV irradiation through the clear film. Similar technology is also being used with Electron Beam (EB) curable adhesives (which do not contain photoinitiator) to laminate opaque films, metalized films, papers, foils and even clear films. EB curing of laminations is also popular due to studies involving FDA compliances for food packaging adhesives.

Recently, seven new oligomers were designed to improve adhesion in various laminating adhesives. We chose to evaluate these new oligomers on polypropylene (OPP and BOPP) and polyester (PET), since most of the laminating adhesive work has focused in that area. In this study, a chemist first UV-cured the new oligomers on both polypropylene (OPP and BOPP) and polyester (PET) to determine the best oligomer for each film. However, some of the oligomers (CN3101-CN3104) were designed specifically for rigid plastics, such as polycarbonate (PC) and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA). These oligomers were still evaluated in the study to determine their adhesion to OPP and PET. Finally, the chemist EB-cured two combinations of film using one of the oligomers (CN3100).