Dow’s collaboration with Nordmeccanica in adhesives provides a model for the accelerated technological development that the company believes can help operations in the MEA ‘leapfrog’ current practices.
Having achieved a breakthrough in its collaboration with Nordmeccanica on Symbiex solventless adhesives, Dow is continuing with a collaborative approach that it believes could prove transformative in the Middle East.
For Alessandro Corticelli,sales manager for Dow Adhesives and Functional Material in Middle East, Africa and Turkey (MEA&T), such partnerships could offer a step-change in how companies in the region operate.
“We believe the Nordmeccanica collaboration model can open up multiple opportunities in the MEA&T region, where we’ve seen some of our customers having integrated packaging operations, including lamination,” said Corticelli. “In markets with huge growth potentials, such as the Middle East or Africa, collaborating with machine manufacturers can help leapfrog local techniques and practices.”
Dow established its global innovation and business development agreement with Nordmeccanica, a leader in coating, laminating, and metallising machinery, with the aim of further accelerating the development of new packaging technology.
Both companies saw enormous potential to advance solutions for the flexible packaging industry by combining adhesive and machine development, targeting new technologies for faster commercialisation to market. They worked together to reimagine the current conventional lamination process and address some of its fundamental limitations.
The result of the collaboration was Symbiex Solventless Adhesives, Dow’s new ultra-fast curing adhesive technology, combined with the innovative Duplex SL One Shot lamination line from Nordmeccanica.
This game-changing technology, which redefines today’s standards in packaging lamination, enables converters to accelerate innovation into the value chain through a simpler and more flexible lamination process, improving their competitiveness and responsiveness to meet today’s fastpaced market needs. With Symbiex and the Duplex SL One Shot laminator, converters are able to slit just 90 minutes after lamination, down from today’s 24-hour standard.
Dow and Nordmeccanica launched their revolutionary lamination technology at Drupa 2016, to wide acclaim.
Aiming at faster commercialisation of new adhesive solutions, Dow and Nordmeccanica are working on joint projects in order to bring several new technologies to market.
“Nordmeccanica truly believes in the power of these two companies to drive innovation,” said Vincenzo Cerciello, technical manager of Nordmeccanica Group.
“Technology these days is in fact so advanced that innovation is the result of the combined efforts of multiple players. With this strong collaboration we will continue to fuel the growth of the flexible packaging industry that touches almost everyone’s life on the planet. This industry is also one of the most significant to drive sustainable packaging development, with the most efficient material usage, as well as reducing food waste along the global food supply chain.”
Dow is committed to driving collaboration across the value chain in order to accelerate innovation in the industry. The company connects scientific expertise, application and manufacturing capabilities, and value chain engagement to constantly improve and deliver new solutions for its customers.
Pack Studio innovation hubs
Dow’s Pack Studios initiative builds on this collaboration value proposition by providing customers with an opportunity to leverage Dow’s expertise, broad product portfolio, and product and application testing capabilities to accelerate the development of innovative solutions.
Dow’s Pack Studios innovation centres can facilitate collaboration with experts throughout the value chain and provide state-of-the-art conversion machinery, like industry-scale laminators, pouch-packaging equipment or pilot-scale adhesives coaters to accelerate innovation.
Customers can access Pack Studios in the US, Brazil, China, Switzerland, and Italy. The innovation center in Mozzate, Italy, was purpose-built to address the needs of Dow’s adhesives customers. Here, an industry-scale Nordmeccanica Super Combi 3000 laminator line is available to customers, allowing them to minimise the downtime associated with prototyping and testing, and eliminating the need to use their own equipment and disrupting their commercial production.
Like the other global innovation centres, the Pack Studio in Italy features a collaboration room to inspire solution-based thinking, state-of-theart laboratory facilities for material development, and fabrication and testing equipment to validate packaging applications.
The result is a full innovation cycle hub where customers can now test packaging concepts from raw material to actual package performance for a faster product development cycle time.
Innovation starts with K
Dow Adhesives jointly presented its new technology with Nordmeccanica at K 2016, Dusseldorf, Germany.
“K was the perfect platform to showcase our latest adhesive developments for packaging lamination and for transportation applications including packaging tapes, labels and temporary surface protective films,” said Roberto Rigobello, marketing director for Dow Adhesives and Functional Material for EMEA.
“Especially as it also gave us the opportunity to present the capabilities available to our adhesive customers at our Pack Studios, Dow’s collaboration platform designed to increase the pace of innovation.”
With an unparalleled portfolio of innovative polyethylene resins, barrier resins, laminating adhesives, tie layers, high-performance sealants as well as peel polymers and adhesives for packaging tapes, labels and protective films, Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics provides tailored, total packaging solutions, offering flexibility for differentiation in the marketplace and the satisfying experience consumers are looking for.
Dow Adhesives for Packaging, Textiles and Hygiene is one of the product offerings of Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics. It is based on leading technologies and expertise for lamination, coating, and binding in packaging applications including films, tapes and labels, as well as textiles and ink or hygiene applications like wet wipes and filtration.
Building on a strong heritage, Dow Adhesives has been the pioneer for many adhesives-based technologies such as low-noise packaging tapes, waterborne adhesive for non-water whitening solution for labeling and graphics, alcohol-reducible adhesive for solvent-sensitive films, and ultra-low formaldehyde binders for textiles and nonwovens.
Dow Adhesives’ signature brands, such as Adcote Solventborne Adhesives and Solventborne/Waterborne Coatings, Mor-Free Solventless Adhesives, Robond Waterborne Adhesives or Primal Waterborne Binders, offer reliable quality, consistency, process safety and proven bonding performance for a broad range of markets and applications.