Process for Production of Pressure Sensitive Adhesives

Pressure sensitive adhesives are a special class of adhesives. These are characterized by ease of peelability from any surface to which they are stuck, while at the same time providing reasonably good adhesion. A good pressure sensitive adhesive coated label will not produce any damage to the adhering surface on being peeled off. It will also not leave a visible layer of polymer on the surface. Pressure sensitive adhesives are in extensive use in developed countries for the production of temporary coatings and labels of various types. BARC has recently developed this import substitute product to meet the above requirements. 

A process has been established at a lab scale level of 0.1kg/hr batch cycle through the Conventional Chemical Process route where polymerization of a monomer mixture is achieved under specified process conditions by means of free radical initiator. Option is available to do this polymerization either in a homogenous medium or under emulsion condition. However, in view of its ease of adaptability to the existing polymer production facility the emulsion polymerization route has been standardized. All the raw material for this process are locally available. 

After the production of the adhesive, the standard coating procedure can be used to produce adhesive coated labels or strips from a variety of materials such as paper, polyester film and cellophane. This import substitute product is stable upto one year at ambient temperature of 30-45 C and its is hydrophobic in nature.