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Journal articles
Adhesion with purpose: The value of primers in sustainable flexible packaging, TAPPI Journal July 2025
ABSTRACT: Primers play a crucial role in flexible packaging by providing adhesion, enhancing performance, and improving the overall quality of packaging structures. As the packaging industry shifts towards more sustainable solutions, it brings new challenges for meeting adhesion requirements. Different types of sustainable materials, with their complicated physical and chemical properties, usually result in poor adhesion in extrusion coating or extrusion lamination, whether this is due to fast crystallization, secondary crystallization, low processing temperature, lack of functional groups, or a combination thereof. Water-based primers ensure that these innovations meet both functional and environmental standards for the packaging of tomorrow. Conventional water-based primers, including polyethyleneimine (PEI) and ethylene acrylic acid (EAA), offer significant advantages in sustainable packaging design by chemically modifying the surface of the substrate to enhance adhesion. In this study, we will discuss adhesion issues in three case studies involving sustainable packaging materials: (1) extrusion coating of polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) on paper; (2) extrusion lamination of paper and metallized film with starch biopolymer; and (3) extrusion coating of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) on paper. These cases represent three adhesion challenges related to sustainable materials, namely fast crystallization rate, low processing temperature, and secondary crystallization. A three-step adhesion improvement procedure was employed to identify the proper primer in each case study. This procedure included a wetting-out test with primer, an adhesion test, and an extrusion test with priming. In our results, strong fiber tearing or destructive bonds were achieved in each case with the help of water-based primers. These results demonstrate the value of water-based primers in enabling the transition to more sustainable packaging structures without compromising performance.
Journal articles
Rheological indicators to predict the extrusion coating performance of LDPE, TAPPI JOURNAL, December 2005, Vol. 4(12) (92 KB)
Rheological indicators to predict the extrusion coating performance of LDPE, TAPPI JOURNAL, December 2005, Vol. 4(12) (92 KB)
Journal articles
Prioritization for an r&t program: tools that help to achieve consensus, TAPPI JOURNAL, July 2001, Vol. 84(7)
Prioritization for an r&t program: tools that help to achieve consensus, TAPPI JOURNAL, July 2001, Vol. 84(7)
Journal articles
Effect of starch type on the silicone holdout of release papers, TAPPI JOURNAL, March 2001, Vol. 84(3)
Effect of starch type on the silicone holdout of release papers, TAPPI JOURNAL, March 2001, Vol. 84(3)
Journal articles
Effect of ink and paperboard characteristics on flexographic
Effect of ink and paperboard characteristics on flexographic print quality based on print density, TAPPI JOURNAL September 2011
Journal articles
The roll of hot melt adhesives in sift-proof sealing, TAPPI JOURNAL, April 1998, Vol. 81(4)
The roll of hot melt adhesives in sift-proof sealing, TAPPI JOURNAL, April 1998, Vol. 81(4)
Journal articles
Performance and characterization of hot melt applied cold seal adhesives, TAPPI JOURNAL, November 1998, Vol. 81(11)
Performance and characterization of hot melt applied cold seal adhesives, TAPPI JOURNAL, November 1998, Vol. 81(11)
Journal articles
Packaging and extrusion technologies share conference spotlight, TAPPI JOURNAL, December 1996, Vol. 79(12)
Packaging and extrusion technologies share conference spotlight, TAPPI JOURNAL, December 1996, Vol. 79(12)
Journal articles
High-performance films from new technology polypropylene, TAPPI JOURNAL, March 1996, Vol. 79(3)
High-performance films from new technology polypropylene, TAPPI JOURNAL, March 1996, Vol. 79(3)
Journal articles
Designing and testing an improved packaging for large hollow chocolate bunnies, TAPPI JOURNAL, August 1997, Vol. 80(8)
Designing and testing an improved packaging for large hollow chocolate bunnies, TAPPI JOURNAL, August 1997, Vol. 80(8)