Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany) has expanded its production capacity for organic dispersions used for heat sealing applications. Since the beginning of August, a significantly expanded plant at the Darmstadt site has been supplying additional material. The specialty chemicals company is supporting its customers in the packaging industry and their demand for easier recycling of plastic packaging.
Evonik markets the methacrylate binders under the brand name DEGACRYL. The binders are used to formulate heat seal lacquers that securely seal food and beverage packaging. They provide direct adhesion to aluminum and PET lid structures, which enables primerless and efficient processing by customers. Additionally, they are applicable at a low coating weight while performing consistent opening behavior.
Roberto Vila-Keller, Head of the Coating & Adhesive Resins Business Line at Evonik, said, “The current dynamics in the flexible packaging market is leading us away from multilayer structures and towards mono material packaging. Therefore, we are seeing a significant increase in demand for our DEGACRYL heat seal binders. Our employees are working on sustainable packaging solutions on a global scale and along the entire value chain.”
Dr. Peter Neugebauer, Business Director Specialty Acrylics at Coating & Adhesive Resins, said, “This plant expansion is an important project for our Darmstadt site. Of course, our experienced employees are crucial here: we were able to transfer their specific knowledge and experience regarding the construction, operation, and maintenance of the existing plant to the new plant. This synergy was a decisive success factor to deliver the project on time.”
The next step will be to transfer joint customer projects with innovative, sustainable packaging materials to the product launch phase. DEGACRYL heat seal binders not only ensure a secure closure, but also easy recycling of the packaging.