Adhesives for the Paper Packaging Industry: An Overview

Today, packaging plays a crucial role in maintaining the quality of products during uses by providing safeguarding against physical, chemical and environmental challenges. While polymer-based packaging material has been very extensively used, there has been a recent move to paper-based packaging products because of their economic and environmentally-friendly nature. Currently, Paper and paper-based board materials have been used as packaging material for food products, and e-commerce business. Adhesives in packaging industries are critical to the structure of most paper and paper board packaging, whether applied during the process of conversion and on the packaging line. From a production point of view, adhesive choice can significantly affect process line efficiency and production performance. Adhesive types used in paper industries are water-based adhesives both synthetic and bio-polymer based (starch, cellulose, protein and itaconic acid), Solvent-based adhesives (polyurethane and acrylic-based) and 100% solids adhesives like heat sealing adhesive and hot melts. More recently, water-based heat-expandable adhesive having thermally insulative and cushion-like properties has been provided for use in protective packages and wrap. Here, we aim to present an overview of the research trend of adhesives in the paper packaging industry. The overview summarizes the different adhesives for paper packaging industries.