Many businesses today depend on some kind of glue, tape or adhesives to package or assemble their products for market. When it comes to materials, you have a wide range of choices and some are more efficient than others. If you are not using hot melt adhesive in your business, you could be facing unnecessary problems and here is more about this material.
Why Heat Your Glue?
Heated glue has been around for some time and it contains three basic ingredients:
* Resins – this gives a “sticky” property to the glue.
* Plasticizers – keeps viscosity (thickness) at the right levels. Otherwise the glue would be too thin and run off, or too thick and would not cover properly.
* Polymers – give the glue a rubbery or flexible property. This helps it form a strong and flexible bond once cured.
Hot glues work on a very simple principle. In its normal state it is a solid material which basically has no adhesive properties. You could place room temperature hot melt adhesive between two pieces of porous materials like paper and it would not penetrate, absorb or bond. However, once this glue is subjected to heat for a specified amount of time, it becomes a strong bonding agent.
Not only is hot melt glue a great material for bonding, once it becomes liquid it can cover bonding surfaces and penetrate deeply like water. After the warm glue is applied, the two surfaces are pressed together. Within seconds the bond is complete and the materials are joined together.
Benefits of Hot Melt Adhesive
Liquid glues have a relatively short shelf life and if they are subjected to the atmosphere they begin to harden. Once hardened, they are no longer of any use. Hot melt can be stored for a prolonged period of time and here are some additional benefits:
* Short curing time – with most glues, you must apply them and then wait for them to dry and then cure. This can take hours and in some cases, the materials must set overnight. Hot melt glue bonds and cures very quickly. In fact, materials can be glued on an assembly line and by the time they reach the end of the line, they are ready for packing, storing or shipping to the customer.
* Easy to dispense – hot melt adhesive can be loaded into heating chambers and then easily applied to materials. It is perfect for automated operations.
* Resistant to water – the chemical makeup of the glue makes it resists moisture.
* No hazardous waste created – good for the environment.
