Hot Melt Symposium Covers Many Topics
- Published: October 01, 2000, By David J. Bentley Jr., the PLACE Editor
The Hot Melt Symposium on June 25-28, 2000, at the Sheraton Bal Harbour Beach Resort in Bal Harbour, Florida, offered presentations covering many current topics in the industry. They ranged from papers on curing systems in the Sunday tutorial to a closing panel discussion that answered audience questions regarding web coating. In between these sessions, the almost 200 registrants from the United States, Canada, and nine other countries heard an opening keynote address and 16 technical papers.
In her keynote address, Nancy McDonald, Associate Partner at Andersen Consulting, Inc., spoke on "E-Commerce in Chemicals." She predicted that e-commerce will grow due to "increasing global customer receptivity, continuing investment in infrastructure, continuing decrease in technology costs, and continuing favorable regulatory treatment of e-commerce." McDonald noted the influence of the Internet and technology advances on many aspects of business including the opportunity for engineers and scientists to have one-stop shopping for advice, technical assistance, job information, meeting schedules, and on-line anonymous buying and selling opportunities.
For his presentation entitled "Raw Material Trends for Hot Melt Adhesives in Europe," Robert W. Smith of The ChemQuest Group, Inc., stated that hot melt materials have the second largest adhesive demand by formulative technology and are very important in the rigid bonding and packaging sectors. Key raw materials for non-pressure sensitive hot melt adhesives in Western Europe should experience an annual growth rate of approximately 2.5% for 1998-2003. For pressure sensitive hot melt adhesives, the number is 6.3%.
Robert Forsyth, in his paper on "Challenges and Opportunities of Hot Melt Adhesives in Thailand and Vietnam," said that "both countries are those in which hot melt producers should consider investing."
At the interactive session on "Your Questions on Hot Melt Web Coating Answered," the audience wanted to know how to coat hot melt adhesives on temperature sensitive films such as thin, low density polyethylene. Other questions dealt with current trends on ultraviolet and electron beam curing for coating of hot melt adhesives, equipment for laboratory coating for research and development characterization of new products, and the optical inspection of coating quality in real time.
During the Awards Dinner, the Hot Melt Committee presented the prize for Best Paper at the 1999 symposium to Mark Connell of Nordsen Corp. for his presentation on "Infrared Hot Melt Adhesive Detection Provides Seal Verification for Primary and Secondary Packaging."
John W. McConville of 3M Company received a Certificate of Appreciation recognizing "his service to TAPPI, its Hot Melt Committee, and the Hot Melt Symposium." McConville has been very active for 12 years and most recently organized and led the tutorial at the 1999 symposium.
The Hot Melt Symposium for 2001 will be June 3-6 at the Westin Resort Hilton Head Island in South Carolina.
The hot melt basics tutorial focused on curing systems with an emphasis on the basics of testing, definitions, chemistry, and similar items. Participants were Michael Chronister of Bostik on "Moisture Reactive Hot Melts," Georges Altounian of Hercules, Inc., on "Structural Polyurethane Reactive Hot Melt Adhesive and Testing Methods," Mark Mitry of H. B. Fuller Co., on "An Overview of Ultraviolet Light Curable Pressure Sensitive Adhesives," and Rick Fisher of Fusion UV Systems, Inc., on "Developing a Process Window for UV Curable Pressure Sensitive Adhesives."
Call for Papers in 2001
Harry Cordatos of Westvaco Corp., technical program chairperson for the TAPPI 2001 Polymers, Laminations, and Coatings Conference, has issued a call for papers. The conference will be August 26-30, 2001, at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina in San Diego, CA. Enumerating the benefits of presenting a paper at a Polymers, Laminations and Coatings Conference, Cordatos noted, "This conference allows a speaker to capture for half an hour the attention of individuals specifically interested in the speaker's product. This might be a new resin, new technology, etc. Presenting a paper gives the speaker an excellent occasion to offer technical information and provide `brand awareness' to a very receptive audience."
"Corporations spend millions of dollars for minutes of television time to advertise their products. This conference offers a specific audience of interested individuals at minimum expenditure," according to Cordatos.
Important deadlines that potential authors must meet are submission of a title and abstract by November 17, 2000, and a final manuscript by May 21, 2001. Cordatos noted that these dates allow "potential speakers sufficient time to estimate how much effort they will need for data acquisition and analysis if they must start from scratch."
Papers for the TAPPI Polymers, Laminations and Coatings Conference in 2001 can be in any area of interest to the division members and conference attendees. This includes but is not limited to films and film extrusion, extrusion coating, barrier coatings, and similar topics. Of special interest are manuscripts on adhesives, coatings, and primers for flexible packaging; substrates; packaging applications; printing; converting machinery; testing; and similar topics that always attract "very large, interested audiences" according to Cordatos.
Persons interested in presenting a paper at this meeting or desiring additional information should contact Cordatos by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., by telephone at 301/497-1361, or by fax at 301/497-1309.
