End-of-Line Packaging

Consumer awareness continues to increase and impact buying behavior. Brand owners are driving change to meet increasing consumer demands like convenience, sustainability, and, most importantly, quality and safety. In between manufacturing of the product and arriving at retailers, the merchandise is prepared for shipping. End-of-line packaging involves:

• Sealing individual product packaging
• Consolidating the individual products into a shipping container
• Sealing and labeling the container
• Stacking the containers on a pallet

End-of-line packaging adhesives need to enable clean machining, strong bonds, increased mileage, best possible efficiency, and compliance with the highest food safety and sustainability standards. Henkel creates advantage for the packaging industry through a complete range of high-impact end-of line-packaging solutions and extensive industry knowledge to drive related operational optimization and continuous improvement.

Henkel partners with brand owners to address unique manufacturing process requirements – while enabling producers to meet consumer demands. With our TECHNOMELT^® and AQUENCE^® products, we offer a complete range of end-of-line packaging adhesives for case and carton sealing, palletizing, labeling and cleaning solutions, and with our organization of technical specialists, Henkel strives to enhance packaging operations and protect brands.

Sustainable Packaging

Consumer goods manufacturers are focusing on sustainable packaging options to reduce the environmental impact and carbon footprint of their products. Assessing the entire supply chain from material choice, processing and life cycle is key component of packaging design. Sustainable packaging is not solely focused on reusing and recycling packaging. Consumer goods manufacturers are placing more emphasis on life cycle assessments of packaging, which includes understanding the carbon footprint of a package and selecting materials which achieve carbon neutrality.

Adhesives support sustainable end-of-line packaging options. In many cases, adhesives can minimize the use of other packaging materials. Adhesives are typically less than 2 percent of the total weight, yet their properties can make all the difference to the overall recyclability of a package. Henkel collaborates with brand owners to identify methods to reduce the carbon generation of packaging.

TECHNOMELT^® SUPRA ECO is a high-performance hot melt adhesive with a negative cradle-to-gate carbon footprint. The formulation leverages bio-based raw materials and mass-balance to achieve up to 98% renewable content. These products also deliver the same adhesion, set and open time, and heat-resistance performance of the existing fossil fuel-based Henkel premium hot melt products, directly supporting customer expectations and current market needs. As well as consuming fewer sustainable raw materials to produce, this range of products enables more sustainable production processes and are compatible with paper recycling streams.

Packaging has an important but generally short life span. Packaging redesign is focused on improving the existing boundaries and challenging the status quo. Compatibility with recycling processes is a key component in selecting end-of-line packaging materials to assure they can be easily separated or easily filtered out during paper recycling. With end-of-line packaging material, we are focused on recovery for recycling and reuse. A lot of effort goes into a tree becoming paper. The best use is for paper to remain paper.

Food Safe Packaging

Packaging serves to protect the food and provides a container for transport to retailers. Protecting brands and consumers is at the heart of Henkel’s end-of-line packaging adhesives. There are several ways food producers can minimize any negative impacts from the environment and the packaging around food products:

• Change the package structure
• Incorporate a barrier in the package (e.g., inner bag in folding cartons)
• Optimize adhesive amount applied

The evolving regulatory landscape and increased scrutiny of minor components requires all packaging materials, including adhesives, to meet and exceed requirements and expectations. Analyzing end-of-line packaging adhesives for food safety is a complex process that requires in depth knowledge of raw materials to interpret results correctly. Henkel’s food safe packaging program is focused on educating consumer goods manufacturers. Our food safe packaging program is focused on three main elements:

• Use safe materials
• Run safe processes
• Prove your safety

TECHNOMELT^® PRO product family offers a high level of food safety assurance provided by careful selection of raw materials and strategic formulation approaches. These adhesives have been thoroughly evaluated for their safe use in food packaging. These adhesives were carefully formulated to meet local food contact regulations and have an added measure of protection based on the extensive review and testing. The TECHNOMELT^® PRO series combines unmatched food safety features with outstanding processing benefits. An innovative feedstock combination makes this series the safest hot melt choice for food packaging applications.

Troubleshooting End-of-Line Packaging Adhesive Application

In order for production lines to run as smoothly and efficiently as possible, it is important to optimize manufacturing processes and prevent unexpected downtimes.  Our experts have developed troubleshooting tips for common issues end-of-line packaging manufacturers frequently deal with, to increase efficiency and prevent costly delays. These include:

Pop Opens

A common challenge many end-of-line packaging manufactures face is packaging popping open along production lines, in transit or during delivery. This not only creates costly delays for the manufacturer but can also negatively affect the brand’s reputation. It is important to determine why the packaging is popping open. Especially since there are several possible reasons why the hot melt adhesive can pop open, such as processing conditions, application settings and bond failure due to external ambient temperatures.

Stringing

Stringing happens when end-of-line packaging hot melt adhesives do not properly separate from applicator nozzle, leaving thin strands of adhesive material that float around the air. This not only leaves a messy looking messy appearance on packaging, but these strings can also cause extensive issues along the production line that lead unexpected downtimes and delays. To help preventing stringing, there are several troubleshooting steps that can be done such as changing the configuration and nozzle type and reducing the distance between the nozzle and the package. 

Char

Char can begin to form when the hot melt adhesive is heated for too long or at too high of a temperature. This causes the material to begin to burn and results in clogged filters, hoses and nozzles. It is important to prevent hot melt char because once it begins to form it can clog up nozzles and hoses creating costly delays and additional material waste. 

Tank Pressure

In order to keep production lines running smoothly and without delays, it is important that the tank pressure is properly maintained. Properly optimizing tank pressure will prevent application issues caused by flow and dispensing rates or adhesive build up that can lead to costly downtimes.

Tank Refilling

Keeping hot melt tanks properly filled prevents production line delays and ensures that enough adhesive is applied so packages arrive safely at their destination with any products stored securely inside. Our experts recommend establishing a tank refilling routine in order to keep a consistent temperature in the tank and avoid char from forming.  

Nozzle Size

Choosing the correct size nozzle will increase both application precision and production speeds. However, determining the correct nozzle size can be challenging. For this reason, our experts have created helpful troubleshooting tips to help you determine the optimal size nozzle to meet your specific end-of-line packaging production needs.