2016/05/30

Emission-reduced and exempt from CLP hazard labeling:
Henkel’s PUR hotmelts show strong growth in bookbinding industry

State of the art in spine and side gluing

With its emission-reduced polyurethane hotmelt adhesives Technomelt PUR ME and ME Cool, Henkel offers excellent REACH-compliant solutions for spine, side and end-paper gluing. The adhesives, which were known under the Purmelt name up to 2014, are already helping hundreds of customers in the graphic arts industry to generate profitable synergistic effects by combining a safe working environment with a state-of-the-art solution for bookbinding – and demand continues to grow. Examined by the German employers’ liability insurance association and given an entirely positive rating in terms of occupational health and safety, Henkel’s polyurethane hotmelts offer distinctly better safety than all other PUR systems while making no compromises on performance.
Highest standards in health and safety and in sustainable production processes pay all along the line for users of Henkel’s Technomelt PUR products. The MicroEmission adhesives have been well-established for many years. Unlike conventional polyurethane hotmelts, they do not have to be labeled as hazardous products, which eliminates the need for extensive extra protective measures on the production line. This is a dual advantage for producers who can not only offer their employees a safe environment to work in but also rely on top bonding results, since PUR ME and ME Cool deliver a bonding performance as good as any conventional PUR melt. This is confirmed by the fact that all the leading equipment manufacturers tested and approved Henkel’s Technomelt adhesives very early on.
The past was dominated by health and safety concerns and costs 
Conventional polyurethane hotmelts used to be labeled with the symbol Xn. Today they must carry the pictogram for “Serious health hazard”. This is because they contain monomeric isocyanates in concentrations of up to 5 percent. When exposed to heat, these substances are released as vapors to the surrounding air where they can irritate respiratory organs, the eyes and skin or trigger allergies. To guard against this danger, users have to install special extraction equipment on their production lines and melters. In addition to this, the employees have to be trained in special seminars on how to handle conventional polyurethane hotmelts. And not least, according to the legislation in some European regions substances requiring hazard labeling have to be stored separately, which generates additional costs.

Today there are benefits for people, companies and the environment 
With Henkel’s Technomelt PUR MicroEmission adhesives, these hazards and costs are a thing of the past. Products like Technomelt PUR ME and ME Cool thus offer distinct benefits for employees, enterprises and the environment. With a monomer isocyanate concentration of less than 0.1 percent, PUR ME and ME Cool lie far below the legal hazard labeling threshold. Many years ago, independent institutes already tested Henkel’s MicroEmission adhesives under real-life conditions on all common binding machines and applicator systems and confirmed the reduction of isocyanate emissions to the air in the workplace by up to 90 percent. The German employers’ liability insurance association thus expressly recommends the use of MicroEmission products to bookbinding enterprises. Henkel’s Technomelt PUR ME and ME Cool meet even the stringent environmental regulations of the Scandinavian countries and have therefore comply with Nordic Swan eco-label. The products also comply in all respects with REACH, the European regulation on chemicals.

Technomelt is a registered trademark of the Henkel Group with proprietary protection in Germany and other countries.

Henkel operates worldwide with leading brands and technologies in three business units: 
Laundry & Home Care, Beauty Care and Adhesive Technologies. Founded in 1876, Henkel holds globally leading market positions, both in the consumer and in the industrial businesses, with well-known brands such as Persil, Schwarzkopf and Loctite. Henkel employs about 50,000 people and reported sales of 18.1 billion euros and adjusted operating profit of 2.9 billion euros in fiscal 2015. Henkel’s preferred shares are listed in the German stock index DAX.

Photo material is available at http://www.henkel.com/press

Contact	Kerstin Paschen	Presse Büro: Rashid Elshahed	
Phone	+49 211 797-4858	 +49 89 1244 5198
E-mail	kerstin.paschen@henkel.com	henkel.adhesive-technologies@emanatepr.com

Henkel AG & Co. KGaA

The following material is available: 

PUR ME and ME Cool deliver a bonding performance 
equal to that of conventional PUR melts

The PUR ME and ME Cool products from Henkel lie far 
below the legal hazard labeling threshold