Inventors:
- St Paul MN, US
Pierre R. Bieber - Korschenbroich, DE
Petra M Stegmaier - Duesseldorf, DE
Eike H. Klünker - Kaarst, DE
Dmitri D. Iarikov - Gaithersburg MD, US
Jeffrey M. Imsande - Menomonie WI, US
Shijing Cheng - Woodbury MN, US
Michele A. Craton - Cottage Grove MN, US
George J. Clements - Afton MN, US
International Classification:
C09J 133/08
C08J 3/00
C08J 3/24
C09J 7/38
B29C 48/40
B29C 48/285
B29C 48/08
Abstract:
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.