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Any business that uses adhesive in their manufacturing process from assembly to packaging should take a good look at how they apply that adhesive onto their products. The amount of adhesive used, the speed of application, and the set time determines productivity output. And your adhesive application equipment is the controlling factor. You want equipment that is reliable, responsive and effective. You may even consider installing or updating an automated system that is customized for your unique needs.

While we do deal in sales and repairs of existing adhesive application equipment, we also specialize in working with you to determine the best adhesive and adhesive application equipment for your company that will ultimately drive up production and decrease long-term costs. Sometimes, what is most beneficial for companies in the long run may be to develop an automated or semi-automated production system for their adhesive applications. And we can do that as well.

It’s all about making your adhesive applications and equipment work for you the way you need it too and that’s why we are here.

Ken Schonauer, Sale Systems and Support Manager
ken.schonauer@haradhesive.com
440-786-7185

Building an automated system is all about customization for your needs that will ultimately drive up production and decrease long-term costs.

Much of our business on the equipment side deals in sales and repairs of existing adhesive application equipment. However, what is most beneficial for companies in the long run may be to develop an automated or semi-automated production system for their adhesive applications. And we can do that as well.

Let me explain. Say, you use a glue to produce a product then you take that product, put it into a box then use a glue or tape to seal the box then put an adhesive label on it. Think about how long that would take a person to do. Okay, now what if that process was automated? A person puts a product on a conveyor which sends it through the glue machine to glue the components, the product is placed in a box, the box flaps are automatically folded, sealed and a label applied. Production time would speed up immensely.

HAR can provide customized gluing systems that are easy to install and maintain. Now that’s something to think about.

Keith Nagy, HAR Equipment General Manager
keith.nagy@haradhesive.com
440-786-7185

I’ve always enjoyed the fact that this regional adhesive supplier I work for manufactures adhesives that are used in some of the largest, well-known retail industries. I can’t tell you which retailers but when you eat at fast food restaurant or go grocery shopping, then there’s a good chance you have bought a product with our adhesive on it. From French fry holders to pasta cartons (including the look-through windows) to bottle labels to container cases, our cold set adhesives are water-based and non-toxic which is perfect for the food industry. And it’s one of the largest divisions of our company.

We manufacture the adhesive then distribute it to package manufacturers who use our adhesive for sealing and labeling their products. So next time you go the grocery store or fast food restaurant, you may notice that almost everything you buy uses adhesive applications for packaging the food you eat. How cool is that?

Jeff Fugitt, Technical Sales Manager
jeff.fugitt@haradhesive.com
614-531-2219

Like most inventions, often you create a product to provide a solution or a better solution to an existing frustration. What would we do without masking tape to make painting simpler? Or sticky notepads to remind us of important “to do” tasks? Or duct tape for everything?

A customer came to us a couple of years ago looking for a better product for masking during the repainting process of military aircrafts. The only product out there that worked was the one the military used—a very thick urethane foam tape. This thick foam tape was needed to hold up to the strong polymer blasting process (like sand-blasting) for paint removal. The problem was that the foam tape had to be literally glued on with glue stick guns in certain areas in order to adhere adequately to the aircraft. It also needed to be scraped off and sometimes left a residue that also needed to be removed. It was a time-consuming process.

We were able to develop a one-of-a-kind tape that is very sticky yet removable without residue, even after the polymer blasting. The tape is a thick pressure sensitive adhesive with no carrier that holds aggressively to many surfaces yet is easily pulled or peeled off. We manufacture it in a variety of sizes from 3/8” to 2” wide ribbons in 50 foot rolls.

For those who need a strong masking tape that will withstand polymer or sand blasting, this tape may be the right choice for you. Added benefits are that the tape is completely waterproof and can withstand pressure washing. Now that beats plain old masking tape any day! For more information about our adhesive solutions, call the HAR Equipment division at 440-786-7185 .

Keith Nagy, HAR Equipment General Manager
keith.nagy@haradhesive.com
440-786-7185

All types of hot melt glue may look the same and melt at the same temperature but they are not the same. With hot melts, performance can vary greatly. It is important to have high quality ingredients in hot melt glue adhesives to control overall cost per carton or application. Hidden costs from cheap ingredients include: charring and higher maintenance costs; pop-opens or bond failures; excessive adhesive use; and stringing and rejected finished goods.

Like other adhesives, it’s true that the less you use the better the bond. If you find you're using more adhesive than necessary, search for a better hot melt for better performance. HAR Adhesive Technologies offers well over a hundred types of hot melt to meet any need. Our Technical Sales Representatives are industry experts and will work with you to find the best hot melt for your application.

Ken Schonauer, Sales Systems and Support Manager
ken.schonauer@haradhesive.com
440-786-7185

A long-time customer of ours had a problem with the hot melt glue they purchase from us. While no one wants to hear they have a problem with what you are selling them, I always try to think of it as an opportunity to improve our relationship by providing them great customer service.

Our customer was using this same hot melt for years for the purpose of adhering foam parts and never experienced any issues. Strange as it sounds, one of our customer’s clients started experiencing some delamination with these particular foam parts. Through our customer’s investigation they felt the delamination issue was a result of more significant handling of the parts on the client’s end. So they came to us to solve the problem.

We discovered that in fact the adhesive was just not flexible enough to withstand this extra handling. After more tests, we found an alternate, more flexible hot melt that met their needs and their price. What’s interesting is that our customer did not even realize that there were alternate kinds of hot melt glues available, especially ones that offered a flexible bond. In the words of our customer “I have been in this business a long time. We never really got into hot melts and we didn’t realize there were other types of these products out there. This is the fix we were looking for and we appreciate HAR’s persistence in helping us with this resolution to our problem with adhesive.”

This experience was a reminder to me that just because you have glue that adheres well, doesn’t mean it will always work in the long run and in any situation. Testing in the various environments that the glue will be exposed too needs to be done in order to find the best solution.

Eric Eckert, Technical Sales Manager
eric.eckert@haradhesive.com
716-583-0966

Okay this blog is a sales pitch, but I promise it's a worthwhile one—especially if you currently have or plan to have equipment for adhesive applications.

A new customer of ours was spending a whopping $30 to $50K per year for replacement parts from Nordson to use on their adhesive application equipment. In meeting with them, we noticed that the parts they used were also the same parts that ITW Dynatec manufactures. Simply by switching to ITW Challenger parts available through HAR they are now saving around 40% for each part purchased. That’s a total savings of a minimum of $12,000 per year! The best part is ITW Challenger parts are high quality, OEM produced parts that meet ISO 9001 standards come with a one year warranty—and HAR will let you try a part for 30 days to make sure you're happy before billing you for it.

Here’s additional reasons to buy from HAR: as an adhesive supplier, most ITW Challenger parts are in-stock for immediate shipping and there’s no need trade-in old parts. And for those dealing with old Nordon systems, ITW Dynatec also has a hot melt glue unit called the Quattro that is a drop-in replacement for any Nordson 2300 series, 3000 series, or ProBlue series. This replacement unit will simply will cost less than rebuilding your old Nordson system.

Okay that’s the end of the sales pitch. A promise is a promise—now it’s your turn to make it worth your bottom line and give me a call at 440-413-5488.

Bill Liston, Technical Sales Manager
bill.liston@haradhesive.com
440-413-5488

Not all corrugated boxes for packaging are the same. Trying to find the right types of adhesives for all boxes can prove challenging, especially when cost is becomes the overriding factor.

Recently, a corrugated box plant was experiencing continued failures with boxes that had a coating on the inside. The failure stemmed from the lack of suitability of the homopolymer based adhesive they were running. Over the years, rising costs forced them to changeover from a copolymer product to a homopolymer product. The homopolymer products worked great on all of their uncoated corrugated boxes which constitutes about 75% of their business. However, this cost cutting measure had a negative effect on the performance with these coated boxes and caused major production slowdown on a daily basis.

Since all of their boxes run on the same assembly, it was essential that they find an adhesive that would work on all their boxes. We custom formulated a new copolymer based product that ended up a few cents more per pound. After a couple of months of using this new copolymer product, it has been evident that even though the adhesive costs more their production has gone up significantly saving the expense of product failures. In the end, they spend a little more on the adhesive with a final product that is superior with no expense of repair and no production time lost.

Eric Eckert, Technical Sales Manager
eric.eckert@haradhesive.com
716-583-0966

Adhesives can be useful for the most unusual situations and it's our goal to remain a leading provider of versatile adhesive solutions. Take, for instance, bovine fertility. Reproductive efficiency is the single most important factor affecting net returns for a cow-calf producer. Just like every business, farmers need to use effective ways to improve productivity and increase supply to meet demand and get the most return on investment. Because of this, artificial insemination has had a major role on the dairy and beef industry producing genetically superior cattle, preventing the spread of diseases and reducing the need to keep several aggressive bulls on farms.

Farmers now only need to keep one bull on a farm for mounting, yet the bull does not produce enough sperm to impregnate enough cows or other bovine. So where does adhesive come into the picture? In order to get the most bang from their bull, farmers use a bovine fertility patch that adheres on the back of a bovine. It’s a pressure sensitive patch that, upon the pressure of being mounted, the patch turns a bright red so that farmers can tell when the animal is ready for insemination. The adhesive has to be strong enough to withstand outside elements and the pressure from a bull. Overall, this fertility detection system increases the chances of pregnancy by 40 to 60%.

Many patches out there have to be sprayed on both the animal and patch to adhere securely, which is not the easiest thing for a farmer to do. We developed an application system with a different type of adhesive that only needs applied on the patch to effectively adhere to the bovine. And that’s why I wrote this unusual blog.

Gary Hajek, Technical Sales Manager
gary.hajek@haradhesive.com
216-374-6423