EB's Bright Future

According to Steve Lapin, VP/technical director of Northwest Coatings, EB adhesives are being used to laminate inline or offline on packages. The primary advantage is that the full bond strength is achieved immediately upon curing.

"UV laminating has been used for more than ten years for the production of laminated labels," begins Lapin. "Labels are typically surface printed followed by application of the adhesive, and then UV cured through the clear overlaminate film. However, EB curing allows improved graphics quality due to the fact that the top film can be reverse printed and the EB can cure the adhesive through the printed label, resulting in graphics that are unobscured by adhesive." He believes this technology could be a very attractive alternative for wide-web laminated label converters.