New adhesive from Ashland brings food packaging option to narrow web flexo printers

DUBLIN, Ohio – A new technology from Ashland Performance Materials, a commercial unit of Ashland Inc. (NYSE: ASH), allows narrow web converters with flexo presses to readily expand into printing for food packaging.

Ashland’s Purelam Fastcure™ two-component urethane solventless adhesives feature unique and extremely long, yet stable, viscosity that provides hours of run time. This flexibility is coupled with a fast-curing technology that allows package printing to cure within 24-48 hours at room temperature. Ashland’s Purelam Fastcure solventless laminating adhesives are aliphatic polyurethane-based and Food and Drug Administration-compliant for a variety of end-use products.

“This environmentally friendly technology will allow both narrow web and wide web converters to add speed in their process and reduce energy costs,” said David Hatgas, director global product management, Packaging and Converting Adhesives and Coatings. “Purelam Fastcure laminating adhesives give our narrow-web customers the opportunity to capture new business by allowing them to expand into food package printing applications.”

Purelam Fastcure 110/240 laminating adhesives feature zero aromatic amines and meet the regulatory requirements for use in indirect food packaging applications. Efforts to expand uses that comply with Food and Drug Administration regulations are ongoing. To learn more about Ashland’s Purelam Fastcure adhesives contact David Hatgas at (614) 790-3394.

Ashland has been bringing innovative solutions to the graphic arts, flexible packaging and printing industries for more than 40 years. As one of the largest water- and solvent-based pressure-sensitive adhesive manufacturers in the world, Ashland provides standard and customized solutions for UV/EB, water-based coatings and adhesives, water-based laminating adhesives, and heat and cold seal production.

Ashland Performance Materials is the number one global leader in unsaturated polyester resins and vinyl ester resins. In addition, it provides customers with leading technologies in gelcoats, pressure-sensitive and structural adhesives, and metal casting consumables and design services.

Ashland Inc. (NYSE: ASH) provides specialty chemical products, services and solutions for many of the world’s most essential industries. Serving customers in more than 100 countries, it operates through five commercial units: Ashland Aqualon Functional Ingredients, Ashland Hercules Water Technologies, Ashland Performance Materials, Ashland Consumer Markets (Valvoline) and Ashland Distribution. To learn more about Ashland, visit www.ashland.com.

-0-

™Trademark of Ashland or its subsidiaries, registered in various countries