Synthesis and Optimization of PVA based paper lamination adhesives

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) are the polymers of great interest because of many desirable characteristics. They can be used for many purposes. One of the major uses of these polymers is they can be used to produce adhesives for paper converting, packaging and laminating. The purpose of this work is to develop a suitable process for producing PVA based adhesives. In this work, both polyvinyl acetate and polyvinyl alcohol adhesives were prepared. Adhesives were prepared by the polymerization and alcoholysis of vinyl acetate monomer (VAM). Different performance tests were conducted after preparing these adhesives. In this study it was found that better quality adhesives can be prepared from polyvinyl alcohol. Different performance tests were conducted on the adhesives prepared. It was found from the performance tests that polyvinyl alcohol adhesive is the best adhesive that can be used for lamination. Drying time for polyvinyl alcohol was found 12.9 minutes which was better than polyvinyl acetate adhesives. Moreover, pull-off test shows that maximum allowable pressure for PVA adhesive is higher than PVAc adhesives and the value is 195 psi.