Low Surface Energy Adhesive for Product Customization

Problem:

A customer required a very aggressive adhesive for labeling a low surface energy substrate. Low surface energy items are typically easy to clean, but don’t hold labels and adhesive well. The labels were being kiss cut by the customer and the matrix was removed before rewinding the label roll. Since the customer was using a very aggressive and tacky adhesive, it was more prone to ooze and bleed out from underneath the labels when the rolls were rewound. This was causing some of the labels to stick to the backside of the release liner when the roll was unwound. The customer struggled to find an adhesive powerful enough to stick to a low surface energy substrate without creating so much adhesive bleed that labels were being ruined causing lost costs.

Solution:

Ameri-Cal introduced the V-501 adhesive and tuned its thickness for the special demands of the application to reduce the amount of ooze and, in turn, reduce the amount of picking. However, knowing there would still be some degree of picking with such an aggressive adhesive, a low surface energy coating was added on the release liner to help prevent the labels from picking off during unwinding. The solution essentially created a nearly double-sided release liner and the product customization resolved processing problems and reduced overall cost.