Beardow Adams has been manufacturing hot-melt adhesives for over 40 years, and in that time, we have developed our own 5-step process for developing new products.
Whether it be for a new packaging hot melt that requires food contact approval, a brand-new woodworking adhesive that utilises the latest raw materials to offer a step-change in performance, or even a labelling adhesive that is alkali washable – helping it support the growing PET bottle return schemes - each new product follows the development path shown below.
1. Evaluating adhesive requirements
Market trends - such as sustainability - influence our development programme, with adhesives that are bio-based, vegan-friendly, or glues that are suitable for pallet stabilisation (that help reduce overall plastic usage), being good examples of products that are driven by customer demands.
Working alongside our customers and Global Partners on hundreds of projects each year gives our R&D team considerable insight into these trends and the specific requirements of new applications across many different industries.
Equally important is our close relationship with our supply chain, ensuring we work with the very latest raw materials and thus helping our products stay at the forefront of delivering exceptional bonding performance.
2. Formulating new adhesives
Using the latest formulation technologies and raw materials, we design adhesives that fulfil the necessary performance requirements and likely application methods, as well as compliance with the latest and relevant accreditations – whether this is for food contact approvals or flame retardeness, amongst many others.
New hot-melt adhesive developments are also rigorously tested and critically analysed using both standard industry and inhouse methods to accurately check and record the adhesive’s properties: typically, this includes, but is not limited to, the glues viscosity, open time, setting speed, adhesion characteristics, and hot and cold temperature performance.
3. Customer trials
Onsite and customer experience trials are the ultimate test for new adhesives. They are often supported by our expert technical service managers and provide invaluable feedback for our R&D teams. The trial phase includes scaling up processes, as typically developments start off as small as 200g test samples. From there, they go through to sample batches in our laboratories - of varying sizes and packing formats - before reaching production runs of full batch sizes.
4. Launching new adhesive grades
Naming products, assigning internal codes, barcoding, highlighting the adhesive’s key features and benefits, and creating marketing collateral, are all part of the process of promoting the new adhesive to our distribution partners and the wider market.
5. Product review
Product development doesn’t stop at launch, continual review should form part of any good process. Applying for relevant accreditations – such as V-Label approval for our vegan packaging adhesive - supports manufacturers demonstrate the safety, suitability, credibility, and reliability of the final product. At this stage, we also start to analyse whether complimentary glues should be developed, check the performance of products with customers, and test our own production via Quality Control.
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Download the Product Development infographic that accompanies this blog.
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If you have a new or demanding application, or are considering changing supplier, and would like to contact us about your bonding requirements, please send an email to: marketing@beardowadams.com, or send us a message via the contact page.