USA – Multinational chemical and consumer goods company, Henkel Adhesives Technologies has opened its Technology Center in Bridgewater, New Jersey, US.
The new 70,000ft² center will serve as an interactive destination for Henkel’s strategic partners and customers in the region.
It will feature the company’s entire portfolio of technology, comprising sealants, adhesives, functional coatings and specialty materials, said the company.
In addition, it will have an ‘interactive infinity room’ that will showcase some of the innovative solutions developed by Henkel.
Some of the programs that will be demonstrated at this site include sustainable packaging for consumer goods, digital solutions for maintenance, sustainable trends in palletizing and the repairs/operations of manufacturing equipment.
It also includes smart health solutions with printed electronics for nappies, personal health monitoring, as well as advances in engineered wood building.
Henkel Adhesive Technologies Innovation and New Business Development vice-president Michael Todd said: “The Technology Center Bridgewater is designed to encourage collaboration across the value chain.
“We have successfully started this concept with the opening of our Inspiration Center Düsseldorf last year and aim to adapt and leverage in core markets for our Adhesive Technologies business such as North America as well.”
The new hub will allow Henkel to collaborate with its customers from more than 800 industry segments for the development of various innovative solutions.
Apart from providing analytical and rheology support, the Technology Center will address the demands of various markets, including in the packaging, labeling, paper lamination, EPIX packaging, flexible packaging, pressure-sensitive tapes, hygiene, tissue, towel, graphics, engineered wood, medical, furniture and construction sectors.
Henkel Packaging and Consumer Goods Adhesives corporate vice-president Pernille Olsen added: “The Adhesive Technologies’ Technology Center in Bridgewater expands on Henkel’s leading position in sustainability and innovation by providing a functional, yet inspiring, collaboration space for partners and customers.
“Through onsite collaboration at the Technology Center, we can fully customize customer interaction to focus on co-innovation and joint value creation.”
Meanwhile, Henkel is piloting the incorporation of 100% post-consumer recyclate from the ‘yellow bag’ collection system – 80% of which apparently comes from recycled PET trays – into the blister packs for its WC FRISCH Kraft Aktiv Pro Nature Pack toilet fresheners.
Although the pack already contains recyclate from PET bottles, Henkel hopes to close the loop on household collection systems by utilizing recycled trays from the ‘yellow bag’.
In this process, plastic, metal, and material waste are discarded in the same bag and sorted mechanically at dedicated sorting plants.
Ulf Timmann, head of Global Packaging Home Cleaning in the detergents and cleaning agents department at Henkel says: “While the recycling streams for returnable PET bottles and PET bottles from the yellow bag are already very well established, there is still a lot of potential in the reuse of PET trays from the yellow bag.
“This is because plastic trays are often multi-layer packaging that cannot be processed into high-quality recyclate due to their complexity.
“Plastic shells made of mono-material, on the other hand, can be recycled very well, but usually only end up in thermal recycling, since they are not sorted separately and the corresponding recycling streams are not yet sufficiently available.”
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