PSA Saves the Day
A company came to Tailored Chemical with a production problem. They were experiencing severe charring issues with the adhesive they were using. The charring occurred because of the adhesive's high temperature that was necessary to meet the open time requirements for production. The charring problem caused significant production down time every day. It also meant increased maintenance costs as the hoses were required to be replaced every quarter.
Tailored Chemical analyzed their production processes and proposed a complete change in adhesive technology. By changing to a Pressure Sensitive Adhesive (PSA), the application temperature of the adhesive could be reduced by 55 degrees Fahrenheit. This change completely eliminated the charring problem that had plagued production. The company realized an additional cost savings by making the change. The previous adhesive was applied at a rate of 7 grams per 1002 inches, but our PSA provided comparable adhesion at a rate of just 5.2 grams per 1002 inches. Overall, the company is using 26% less adhesive, downtime associated with adhesive problems has been eliminated and production has increased more than 20%.
Shortest Lead Times in the Industry
A company contracted with Tailored Chemical Products to serve as a secondary supplier to meet its needs for a very high volume of water-based adhesive. Shortly after the contract was signed, the company management called with an emergency situation. The primary supplier required a three week lead time in order to provide the necessary adhesive and the delay in ordering was going to bring all production lines to a halt as the company would literally run out of glue within that time.
At Tailored Chemical, we consider our customers' needs as our #1 priority. We have the production capacity and nimbleness to meet short-notice requirements. Our own Tailored Chemical truck fleet further enhances our ability to get products on site to meet demands. In this case, we produced the adhesive, loaded it onto one of our tanker trucks and had it delivered to the customer in just 3 days! The company management was so impressed by our ability to respond to their emergency that Tailored Chemical has been the primary supplier for all their adhesive requirements since that date.
RFQ Leads to a New Approach - and Big Savings
A Fortune 500 company published a Request for Quotation (RFQ) for adhesives. The Request asked for bids on a specific adhesive used for case forming at multiple production facilities, allowing for an easy assessment between competitors. Tailored Chemical Products asked for a visit to one of the production facilities. During that visit, we met with production staff, maintenance personnel and the purchasing team to gain a full understanding of current processes and challenges. We learned that the production line required the daily replacement of adhesive nozzles, frequent hose replacements and the glue pots were regularly sent off site for maintenance due to the charring effect of the high temperature gluing process.
Our response to the RFQ included a quote for the specific adhesive in current use, as was requested, but we went above and beyond the RFQ. We included a recommendation for our metallocene-based adhesive technology - PE-1302 - that is unique to Tailored Chemical Products. This product does not char and is an extremely efficient adhesive as it is more aggressive and lower in density than standard Ethylene-vinyl Acetate (EVA) case and carton hot melts.
The customer agreed to a trial run of PE-1302, during which they would carefully monitor usage rates and maintenance issues. At the conclusion of the six week trial, the production lines used 33% less adhesive and no nozzles were replaced during the entire trial period! The customer promptly converted all of their facilities to the use of our PE-1302 product. In the 12 months of operation after the conversion, costs for adhesive spare parts were reduced by more than 50%, and adhesive usage rates were down 30%. These combined savings reduced the total costs of adhesive packaging by 22%. The overall savings are even greater when you factor in the maintenance issues that were resolved by our superior product. The production down time for daily nozzle replacements, hose replacements and charring issues are all a thing of the past.
Customer Testimonial
Tailored Chemical Products has supplied all of our adhesive needs for over 30 years. Last year we were approached by one of our larger customers on our curved plywood product. They told us that we needed to find a way to provide them a curved plywood product, but it had to be formaldehyde free. For fifteen years, we have been making curved plywood for this customer using UF resin. So, we immediately contacted our Tailored Chemical technical service rep. We knew from previous experience and knowledge that water-based PVAc adhesives would not work on this application due to the "spring back" effect after they come out of the press. However, within three weeks Tailored Chemical was back in our facility with a proven solution - they developed a unique, proprietary water-based, formaldehyde-free adhesive that did the job. We are so happy that we saved this account and with the great technical support that we continue to get from Tailored Chemical Products team.
