Afera, the European Adhesive Tape Association, recently held the eleventh edition of its biennial Tape College, which boasted a sold-out programme of 21 technical, sustainability and legislative lectures, as well as important biannual Afera committee and working group meetings, at Le Méridien in Munich, Germany. With a 3-day working programme aimed at “deconstructing the complexity of adhesive tapes”—i.e. teaching the fundamentals and current technical essentials of adhesive tape technology—the biennial event was hosted and taught by the best and brightest of the field of adhesive tape to professionals relatively new to the market. It also proved to be a coveted networking event for the global tape business, new and veteran members alike.
The resoundingly successful event saw the attendance of more than 120 tape-related company delegates, including a significant number of professionals in R&D, customer and technical service, sales, marketing, engineering, production, processing, and quality assurance—even general management. They represented 69 companies from 15 European countries plus U.A.E. Afera members made up about 71% of the participants, 44 from Afera member tape manufacturers and 38 from member suppliers of raw materials, machines, and packaging.
“Not only did you all come here to benefit from a solid overview of the current technologies of the tape business, but you got to know many new faces—which is just as important,” Afera President Evert Smit, who is also director scouting for sustainability, technology, and innovation at Lohmann GmbH & Co. KG., told the audience at the end of the last session. “I have seen many returning participants here this week, and I am pretty sure that many of you sitting here now in several years will be standing up here on stage instructing the next generation.”
Both Mr. Smit and Afera Technical Committee Chairman Reinhard Storbeck, who is also director of R&D at tesa SE, emphasised in their concluding remarks that the most important themes for the future of the tape business now are co-operation and collaboration. Coming together for Afera’s technical events and conference was likened to a family reunion— “and family tends to stick with you!” Evert joked.
Lectures given by field experts focussed on the selection, manufacture, conversion, application, testing, sustainability and E.U. regulation of tapes
Held this year in the accessible city of Munich, the well-established, premier technical learning event provided a back-to-school experience in which field experts lectured over four sessions entitled “Why tapes?”, “Tapes deconstructed”, “Tape production” and “Tape use & testing”. A panel discussion rounded off each session.
In a survey of participants conducted by the Tape College organisers and hosts who hail from tesa, Lohmann, Nitto, Organik Kimya, Coroplast Fritz Müller, DRT and artimelt, “the overall event” and its “meeting of attendee expectations” received the most positive feedback ratings of all the categories. Every speaker received high marks, but 4 presentations of the 21-lecture programme stood out:
Why tapes? A key to making an idea sticky is to tell it as a story. Mr. Smit did just this in his general introduction to adhesive tapes “Made to Stick” at the start of the first session. “We don’t need more solutions for tapes, we need better solutions for solving future needs,” he emphasised. “Tapes, because of their versatility, help enable the (sustainable) future more than any other bonding technology.”
Caroline Sperling, manager of tesa SE’s customer solution centre in Europe, introduced Tape College attendees to pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) technology, providing a survey of the most important relationships between physical performance and application properties. She aligned adhesive tape technology available with the demands of today and tomorrow´s industrial processes.
Dr. Hans Peter Dette, senior product development engineer at 3M, taught us all about the viscoelasticity of high-performance PSAs, including structure, properties, and external influences. All adhesive tapes have at least one viscoelastic component: wet-out versus peel.
Michel Sabo, application development manager at Nitto EMEA, took us on a trip through “The Versatile World of Adhesive Tapes” during the last session of the Tape College. Most importantly, he taught us that a tape should be seen as a functional sheet enabling a job to be done, whether that is adhering, protecting, blocking, or transferring, or a combination of these.
Afera Committee and Working Group Meetings
Directly preceding the 11th Tape College, Afera held its twice-yearly Technical, Marketing and Steering Committee, as well as the Regulatory Affairs Working Group, meetings. Over 50 Afera member company delegates came together to discuss developing Afera’s product carbon footprint (PCF) calculation tool for adhesive tapes, creating a tape release liner recycling programme, launching the 2024 edition of the Afera Test Methods Manual, revising the ISO-certified Peel Adhesion Test Method, modifying the CEPI Lab TM on recyclability of fibre-based packaging, developing a time-to-failure TM, organising the 67th Afera Annual Conference working programme, monitoring and acting on E.U. regulatory legislation such as the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) and Deforestation Regulation, attending the 7th Global Tape Forum and Global Test Methods Committee Meetings in Shanghai, engaging the packaging and commodity tapes member segments, and much more.