PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING A PRESSURE SENSITIVE ADHESIVE HAVING A LOW VOC CHARACTERISTICS

• Main Authors: Stegmaier, Petra M, Imsande, Jeffrey M, Craton, Michele A, Clements, George J, Bieber, Pierre R, Iarikov, Dmitri D, Matzeit, Niklas M, Klünker, Eike H, Cheng, Shijing
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 02.09.2021
• Subjects: ADHESIVE PROCESSES NOT PROVIDED FOR ELSEWHERE; ADHESIVES; AFTER-TREATMENT NOT COVERED BY SUBCLASSES C08B, C08C, C08F,C08G; AFTER-TREATMENT OF THE SHAPED PRODUCTS, e.g. REPAIRING; CHEMISTRY; COMPOSITIONS BASED THEREON; DYES; GENERAL PROCESSES OF COMPOUNDING; METALLURGY; MISCELLANEOUS APPLICATIONS OF MATERIALS; MISCELLANEOUS COMPOSITIONS; NATURAL RESINS; NON-MECHANICAL ASPECTS OF ADHESIVE PROCESSES IN GENERAL; ORGANIC MACROMOLECULAR COMPOUNDS; PAINTS; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; POLISHES; SHAPING OF MATERIAL IN A PLASTIC STATE, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDEDFOR; SHAPING OR JOINING OF PLASTICS; THEIR PREPARATION OR CHEMICAL WORKING-UP; TRANSPORTING; USE OF MATERIALS AS ADHESIVES; WORKING OF PLASTICS; WORKING OF SUBSTANCES IN A PLASTIC STATE, IN GENERAL; WORKING-UP

The present disclosure relates to a process of manufacturing a pressure sensitive adhesive, comprising the steps of: a) providing a hot melt mixing apparatus comprising a reaction chamber; b) providing a hot melt processable pressure sensitive adhesive composition comprising: (1) a (meth)acrylate copolymer component comprising: i. C1-C32 (meth)acrylic acid ester monomer units; ii. optionally, ethylenically unsaturated monomer units having functional groups selected from the group consisting of acid, hydroxyl, acid anhydride, epoxide, amine, amide groups, and any combinations thereof; and iii. optionally, further ethylenically unsaturated monomer units which are copolymerizable with monomer units (i) and/or (ii); and (2) a crosslinking system selected from the group consisting of thermal crosslinking systems, actinic radiation crosslinking systems, and any combinations thereof; (3) optionally, at least one expandable microsphere; and (4) optionally, at least one pigment; c) providing a polymeric resin; d) subjecting the polymeric resin to a heating step (thereby at least partly remove low Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) from the polymeric resin) thereby forming a cleaned polymeric resin; e) incorporating the cleaned polymeric resin and the hot melt processable pressure sensitive adhesive composition in the reaction chamber of the hot melt mixing apparatus; -57-f) mixing the hot melt processable pressure sensitive adhesive composition and the cleaned polymeric resin in the hot melt mixing apparatus thereby forming a hot melt blend; g) removing the hot melt blend from the hot melt mixing apparatus; and h) optionally, crosslinking the hot melt blend.