What is Label Adhesive?

Label Adhesive is an intermediary between label material and basis substrate, which plays an important part in bonding.

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If the label is not sticky enough, the label will fall off the product and the product information will not be identifiable to customers. It may cause huge financial losses to the company as well as brand impact. So choosing the right adhesive for your labels is important.

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Types of Label Adhesive

In self-adhesive label printing, adhesive can be generally divided into two categories based on the performance of adhesives: permanent adhesives and removable adhesives.

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Permanent adhesive is generally used in electronic machinery, such as electronic labels, typical: mobile phone battery labels

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Removable adhesive is generally used in food, personal care, etc., such as wet tissue labels, fruit labels, labels on clothes, etc.

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The Introduction of 3 Main Label Adhesive

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Water-Based Adhesive

Water-based adhesive is made by using water as a solvent to emulsify acrylic or polyurethane resin through special emulsification equipment.

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Advantages

Using water as the solvent, it is cheap, environmentally friendly, generally non-toxic and odorless, the glue itself is non-flammable, has a wide range of solid content and viscosity, can use high-concentration high-molecular-weight materials, can control penetration and wettability.

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Some water glues can achieve good water resistance and bonding strength.

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Disadvantages

Long curing time, curing time can be shortened by heating in a dryer, weak water resistance (can be improved by adding a curing agent). Poor initial tack, unsatisfactory bonding strength to difficult-to-bond materials with low polarity, and freezing at low temperatures, causing the fabric to shrink, causing the paper to wrinkle or curl.

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Solvent Adhesive

The solvent adhesive is made by using oily solvent as a solvent to dissolve acrylic or polyurethane.

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Advantages

Using organic solvents as solvents, has a short curing time, low energy consumption, good water resistance, wide drying rate, and opening time.

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It can produce high initial bonding strength or viscosity and has better bonding strength than water glue for difficult-to-bond materials with low polarity.

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Disadvantages

Not environmentally friendly, the solvent is easily volatile, the lower the solid content of the oil glue, the greater the smell.

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The glue itself is flammable, and the strong smell can easily irritate the respiratory tract.

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Some organic solvents are also toxic (such as benzene, toluene, and xylene, which can cause serious damage to the cardiovascular system.

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After applying glue to the non-porous and dense material surface, you need to wait for the solvent to evaporate completely before joining, otherwise it will easily bubble.

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Hot melt adhesive

Hot melt adhesive is a solid meltable polymer that does not require a solvent and does not contain 100% moisture; it is solid at room temperature, and when heated and melted to a certain temperature, it becomes a liquid that can flow and has a certain viscosity. The melted EVA hot melt adhesive is light brown or white. EVA hot melt adhesive consists of basic resin, tackifier, viscosity regulator and antioxidant.

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Advantages

The packaging and shipping cost per unit material is low, does not freeze, and does not require drying and drying equipment.

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It is easy to bond to impermeable surfaces, quickly generates bonding strength, has good storage stability, has a continuous adhesive film, is water-resistant, and is impermeable to water vapor.

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Disadvantages

Requires special application equipment, limited strength due to viscosity and temperature restrictions, will decompose under continuous heating, poor control over the amount of glue applied, may need to preheat the adherend, and high energy consumption.

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Additional Notes

If the same thickness of glue is applied to the same base material, the viscosity will look like this: solvent-based glue > water-based glue > hot melt glue, and the price will look like this too.

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What needs to be noted is that self-adhesive labels are most suitable for label substrates with clean, dry surfaces and no oil or dust. When labeling, the surface of the object to be labeled must be kept dry, free of oil and dust, to achieve the best labeling effect.

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How to Choose the Right Label Adhesive

Confirm what is the surface material of the self-adhesive paste. The adherend with a rough surface generally needs to choose high stickiness materials; and to the adherend with a certain angle, irregular shape, and small-bore, it should choose materials with high stickiness or soft materials.

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Confirm the environment of the adhesive, different glues will show different adhesive performance at different temperatures. In addition, confirm if you need the label to be water-resistant or oil-resistant.

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As a professional self-adhesive label material manufacturer, we have many years of experience of choosing the right adhesive for our clients. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about label adhesive or self-adhesive material.

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