NOMENCLATURE OF ADHESIVES & ADHESIVE AGENTS FOR LABELS
Labels are grouped in 2 families:
“Dry” labels
Adhesive agents can be of the following origin types:
. Vegetable starches, other starches, dextrins, ethers, esters, cellulose, lacquers, lignins, algins, alginates…
. Animal gelatins, albumin, casein
. Silicate minerals
Dry labels are generally selected for their low cost, and to fulfill the conditions of environmental directives (this is the case with packaging in particular).
Their elimination depends mainly on the time spent unsticking them; water, hot water, water with caustic soda additive in the recycling of cheap glass bottles; with vinegar, with alcohol. These hints and tips are not suitable when it comes to removing adhesive labels.
Adhesive or auto-stick labels
Adhesive is synthetic
Formaldehydes, vinyls, acrylics, styrene-butadienes, acrylonitriles, polyesters, poly-chloroprenes, neoprenes, poly-isoprenes, poly-butadienes, thermosetting, thermoplastics, elastomers.
Adhesive labels are retained for their durability, their (increasingly powerful) “probe tack”, their mechanical characteristics, and their resistance to temperature and UV – this is especially true in the domain of packaging for marketing purposes; the container sometimes needs to be visually imposed in an undifferentiated context.
Unsticking an adhesive or auto-stick label is a matter of being able to unstick it quickly and in one go i.e. fully.
