Offers higher liquid-resistance & food-safe confidence
H B Fuller India recently announced a new food-safe adhesive under its leading Swifttak brand to meet the increasing paper straws demand. Paper straws have been a true challenge for the industry and consumers alike, but the company’s latest launch offers differentiated advantages in terms of sustainability, safety, and manufacturing efficiency.
H B Fuller considers food safety as of the utmost importance and key to sustaining life and promoting good health. As more consumers are adopting an “anti-single use plastic” mindset and governments are reacting with a sense of urgency, paper straws are now becoming an increasingly important alternative. As a result, its team in India has launched Swifttak PS5600-I, a food-safe adhesive for the paper straw market.
Developed by local H B Fuller scientists, the new water-based technology enables improved food-safe solutions that maintain straw integrity while the consumer is enjoying a beverage, and create durable paper straws that withstand three-hour resistance in a wide range of liquids, including water, juices, soft drinks, and milk. Straws made with Swifttak adhesives meet FDA 176.170 regulatory.
“No matter if you are starting your paper straw business, expanding your portfolio from plastic to paper, or simply upgrading your technology to be high water-resistant, choosing the right adhesive is key to creating a safe, long-lasting paper straw that maintains its integrity during use and that help reduce environmental footprint”, says Harsh Gupta, IMEA managing director. “Our new Swifttak PS5600-I is really at the forefront of innovation while being plasticizer-free, and by offering more than three-hour liquid resistance and greater operational efficiencies.”
The company has advanced its grade of adhesives for very fast-moving paper straw machines, taking manufacturing to a new level of efficiency and product quality. Swifttak supports fast-setting products that are easier and cleaner to work with and cause less wear and tear on machinery. Hence, this straw solution allows manufacturers to focus more on product quality and output and less on operational concerns. Additionally, as beverage brands, restaurants, and corporations make the transition from plastic to paper straws, it is important that they offer liquid-resistant, compliant, and food-safe straws made for a more sustainable future.
By leveraging its laboratory in Shirwal, near Pune, the H B Fuller R&D team worked closely with specialized paper and machine manufacturers to customize the formulation for high-speed paper straw production and address specific applications and equipment. Having this capability and technical knowledge based in India, allows the global company to test adhesives with manufacturers’ paper samples prior to running the adhesive on their paper straw lines ̶̶̶ providing the confidence in product performance before halting regular production to trial a new material.
“The industry is steadily moving towards more eco-friendly processes and components. Adhesives, a small, yet central, actor in the change towards circularity and sustainability, are now helping manufacturers address major concerns with plastic and tackling the paper straw market needs to continue to grow in popularity and usage,” concludes Gupta.
Since 1887, H B Fuller has been a global adhesives provider focusing on perfecting adhesives, sealants, and other specialty chemical products to improve products and lives. With fiscal 2020 net revenue of US $2.8 billion (approximately Rs 21,009 crore), H B Fuller’s commitment to innovation brings together people, products, and processes that answer and solve some of the world’s biggest challenges. Its responsive service creates lasting, rewarding connections with customers in electronics, disposable hygiene, health and beauty, transportation and infrastructure, aerospace, clean energy, packaging, construction, woodworking, general industries, and other consumer businesses.
The Covid-19 pandemic led to the country-wide lockdown on 25 March 2020. It will be two years tomorrow as I write this. What have we learned in this time? Maybe the meaning of resilience since small companies like us have had to rely on our resources and the forbearance of our employees as we have struggled to produce our trade platforms.
The print and packaging industries have been fortunate, although the commercial printing industry is still to recover. We have learned more about the digital transformation that affects commercial printing and packaging. Ultimately digital will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future.
Web analytics show that we now have readership in North America and Europe amongst the 90 countries where our five platforms reach. Our traffic which more than doubled in 2020, has at times gone up by another 50% in 2021. And advertising which had fallen to pieces in 2020 and 2021, has started its return since January 2022.
As the economy approaches real growth with unevenness and shortages a given, we are looking forward to the PrintPack India exhibition in Greater Noida. We are again appointed to produce the Show Daily on all five days of the show from 26 to 30 May 2022.
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