Afera’s 1st Global Adhesive Tape Summit a success

Themed “Relationships and drivers in the tape business: creating and leveraging technology, markets, processes, value and opportunities,” the Summit saw the attendance of more than 230 tape-related company delegates, including a significant number of CEOs and heads of R&D, from 15 European countries including Turkey, plus China, India, Israel, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, U.A.E and the U.S. Afera members made up about 71% of the participants, 43 from Afera member tape manufacturers and 104 from member suppliers of raw materials, machines and packaging.

Circular economy: a way to more sustainability

Participant feedback revealed the 3 most popular presentations of the solid, 28-lecture programme held over 2 days at the Westin Grand Munich Hotel: Hermann Onusseit of IVK, the German Adhesives Association, discussed the ERPC Monitoring Report 2016 and how adhesives and packaging tapes affect the recycling of paper products in his presentation “Circular economy: a way to more sustainability”. How can we ensure that adhesive applications do not cause problems in paper recycling? Citing co-operative European industry studies, NGO guidelines and regulatory trends, Mr. Onusseit conveyed precisely how they should be dimensioned and mechanically stabilised, so that they survive as large particles in the conditions of pulping and allow for mechanical separation by means of punched screens, slot screens and centrifugal purifiers.

Investigation into the smell of adhesives

In his presentation, “Investigation into the smell of adhesives”, Philipp Denk of the Department of Sensory Analytics at the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV, and chair of Aroma and Smell Research at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, explained how the formation pathway, chemical structure and odour quality of 20 compounds in 6 acrylic adhesives are critical in supporting manufacturers to develop strategies to produce low-odour and low-emission adhesives and thus positively influence everyday odour exposure.

(Semi)-structural bonding tapes based on polyurethane dispersions

Annette Kelsch, R&D team leader of reactive adhesives at Lohmann GmbH & Co. KG, talked about “(Semi)-structural bonding tapes based on polyurethane dispersions.” The outstanding properties of latently reactive P.U. tapes are that they cure within seconds, have a low activation temperature providing for high temperature resistance properties, are applicable on sensitive surfaces, stay flexible and elastic after curing, have high chemical, heat and washing resistance, and are available in individual and pre-shaped die-cuts.

International meeting of the regional industry associations

On the first day of the Summit, Afera hosted the biennial international meeting of the regional industry associations and their test method experts. Nearly 30 delegates from the national/regional adhesive tape associations of China (CATIA, The China Adhesives and Tape Industry Association), Taiwan (TAAT, The Taiwan Regional Association of Adhesive Tape Manufacturers), North America (PSTC, The Pressure Sensitive Tape Council) and Japan (JATMA, The Japanese Adhesive Tapes Manufacturers Association) gathered at the Global Tape Forum (GTF) and Global Test Methods Committee (GTMC)’s 6th set of biennial meetings to work through agendas loaded with standardisation issues such as harmonising test methods (TMs) and guidelines, sharing market statics and trends, comparing environmental legislation and classifying of tape products, identifying world markets not yet organised, and reporting on demand increase initiatives.

Global and national market overviews

During the Summit, multiple presentations were delivered by delegates from each global region represented in the GTF. Session 1 kicked off with global and national market overviews, most of which were first reviewed in the GTF meeting the day before. Participants learned that with steady technological progress and improved efficiency and quality, China’s tape industry will maintain an annual growth rate higher than that of GDP, around 7%.  Over the next few years, Taiwan expects a relatively slow growth rate of 2% CAGR. Japan makes up less than 10% of the global tape market in sales, which in 2016 were $3.7 billion, and its market volume is slowly shrinking. In Western Europe, adhesive tape production will rise a modest 1.2% annually to 6.3 bsm in 2018.  The next GTF and GTMC Meetings will be hosted by JATMA on 16-19 November 2020 in Osaka, Japan.

Next conference to be held in Athens

Afera additionally announced the launch of its adhesive tape industry Annual Conference, the premier event for the European tape business, taking place  in Athens (Vouliagmeni), Greece, at the Divani Apollon Palace & Thalasso from 3 to 5 October. Themed “Innovation and digitisation in adhesive tape technology” and its impact on suppliers, sales channels, product development, converters, supply chains, business models, technology and the application process, the Conference will provide tape industry professionals with the opportunity to interact with tape industry leaders, sales and technology drivers, and future-focussed speakers with inside and outside-in perspectives to share.