At Pafra Adhesives we pride ourselves on having a portfolio of products to support a wide range of applications and industries. However occasionally, what might seem on the surface to be a simple application process, requires the skill and knowledge of our teams to develop a bespoke solution to satisfy our customer’s requirements.

A UK based group approached us for assistance in supplying an adhesive for after dinner mint thin pockets. At first glance manufacturing a black glassine paper pocket wrap seems straightforward, but this application posed different challenges for both us and our customer. The adhesive had to be able to be applied using a very fine line, it had to avoid paper wrinkling, and provide enough strength when auto filled with the product.

The bespoke packaging line was fully audited by our technical team and paper samples were obtained for laboratory testing. We discovered that whilst bonding the paper to itself was the easy part, understanding the function, and action, of the anilox roller and doctor blade were critical in achieving the correct adhesive properties to apply the very low amount of adhesive required. A selection of adhesives were selected for line trials, giving a variety of results. Our team found that just a very small increase in adhesive applied caused wrinkles, whilst applying too little caused microscopic overspray (which while difficult to spot caused the pockets to stick together) and a slight overrun on the stencil, caused the top of the pocket to be tight thus affecting the filling line.

Working closely with our customer we developed a product for the application which gave them the clean running they required, a good even low coat weight with excellent adhesion and a strong fibre tear to withstand the end of line product filling. The final product was approved by a satisfied customer who was impressed with the collaborative nature of our approach.

The above is a fantastic example of how the teams at Pafra Adhesives work with our customer during lengthy product development and trials, to create a bespoke solution for this small, but very special application which is enjoyed in its millions.

If you would like to make the switch to an adhesives manufacturer that innovates with your team we would be happy to help. Click here to speak to us today.