askralph

David asks,

I have just installed a Flute laminator Mounting machine here in UK that I purchased from China. While I was there they said that most of the machines in China would be using Starch Glue. I wanted to try some so they sent me about 25kg of the components to try with the idea of buying from China if it works. However there are problems with importing it, so I have started to look at buying materials here.

We are either mounting uncoated paper to Test corrugated board or to Unlined grey-board our speeds are not much more than 70 metre/min max but much lower for most jobs around 45mtrs/min

The recipe from China is as below. The problem is that they are saying the Calcium Carbonate has other additives in it. I guess they want me to buy from them and won’t say what those additives are nor are the instructions to prepare the glue very clear.

The recipe I have is as follows

• 5kg Corn Starch
• 5kg Calcium Carbonate + whatever there may be in it
• 16kg water
• 300gm Caustic soda
• 150 gm Borax

I was told to mix the starch and the calcium carbonate and then add the Caustic soda and Borax.

My question is:

Does the above recipe look viable? I think it’s possible that the calcium compound is just with that nothing added. I have seen recipes for starch glue including all of the other contents and I have also seen that the Calcium can be a filler which might make it more viscous?

The cost of all of these chemicals is much cheaper than the PVA based adhesives we have available here and I understand that Starch glue has been used in corrugated for many years.

If you are able to advise if this recipe will work or if there is a different combination of chemicals it would be very helpful.

PVA adhesives are recommended for laminating because their elastic properties reduce the extent of score cracking. Yes they are more expensive, but the finished product is typically of a much higher quality.

I do believe that the calcium carbonate is nothing more than a filler and increases the viscosity of the mixture.

I have copied some of my network contacts here in the States for their expertise.

Let’s also toss this out to our readers and see what their experiences have been.

– Ralph

This entry was posted on December 1, 2017 at 1:21 pm and is filed under Containerboard, Corrugating. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.