Advantages of Hot Melt Coating

The primary benefits of hot melt coating are the flexibility to coat a variety of thickness, patterns and bonding characteristics. Hot melt coating generally costs less than solvent coating because of the lower equipments cost and its relative simplicity. Hot melt coating lends itself to in-line lamination. This leads to better bonding because the glue is still in semi-liquid form when it contacts the laminate. This is especially helpful for rough or porous materials.

Glue thickness: We can coat 50” wide form 1 mil (0.001 inch thick) to 15 mils (.015 inches thick). We can coat onto a release liner then laminate the product or we can coat the material directly and add the liner later.

Pattern coating: There are 4 types of patterns that can be coated:

-Stripes in the web direction (zone hot melt coating). This can be particularly useful if tabs are needed on a peel and stick product or if different glues are needed side by side.

-Rectangles where the glue head is turned on and off to make rectangular islands of glue in a regular pattern (zone pattern hot melt coating),

- Free form pattern (hot melt pattern coating: a form of printing). The picture shows a roll transfer system. There is also rotary hot melt screen printing system available.

-Hot melt can also be sprayed on in line patterns, swirls or 'fibber' into small random fibers. The main advantage of this technology is that there is no direct contract between the coating head and the material and it leaves openings between the glue lines for reduced glue usage and breath ability.

We currently have the capability of zone coating, full coverage coating and spray coating for narrow web up to 50” wide. Given the right order, we can add other capabilities.

In-line lamination: Unlike lamination with pre-made acrylic adhesive transfer tape, hot melt coating allows a good wet out of the surface, leading to a faster and better bond to the laminate, especially for porous or rough materials such as felts or large weave cloth.

Hot melt adhesives come with a wide variety of characteristics ranging from hard and non tacky ‘permanent’ adhesives used for box making to PSA (pressure sensitive adhesive) that form a permanent bond to removable PSAs. Most hot melts are thermoplastic which limits their temperature range, but some have higher working temperatures than others. Hot melt adhesives are generally non toxic and do not contain solvents or other pollutants which are often carcinogenic. They can be disposed of in regular garbage or burned without adverse affect. This makes it a friendly material for coating, using and disposing.