Acrylic emulsions are used in paper applications to improve physical properties. They can be used as saturants or coatings to influence strength and elongation properties, chemical, solvent and water resistance as well as the hand or stiffness of the product. They can also impart heat and light stability.
Acrylic emulsions are a mixture of an acrylic polymer, water as a solvent, and chemical emulsifiers. Traditionally, acrylic emulsions have been offered at lower solids (below 50%) to offer stability and longer shelf life. That has been the case for many decades.
As technology has evolved, acrylic emulsions can have higher solid content and less solvent (water) content while maintaining stability and delivering expected performance requirements across a range of applications. Those applications include engineered paper coatings for applications like abrasives, tape and premask, and decorative papers, where they are added to deliver desired mechanical properties. These properties can include tear resistance, wet and dry strength, solvent resistance, and durability.
Using high-solids acrylic emulsions can improve efficiency and provide sustainability benefits in engineered paper coatings in a number of ways. With less water, there is more active solid content. That means less material needs to be shipped so fewer trucks need to be used, reducing transportation costs and lowering the CO2 footprint.
From an application perspective, a high-solids acrylic emulsion impacts process efficiency and productivity by enabling a higher film build/polymer add-on in one operation. With less water, drying time and energy usage are both reduced. Higher solids improve ordering efficiency because there are fewer orders to place for a given volume.
Lubrizol High-Solids Acrylic Emulsions
Lubrizol has extensive experience in developing polymers for engineered paper, with deep market and applications knowledge. Our customers have shown significant interest in high-solids acrylic emulsions for engineered paper applications as they recognize the benefits of shipping less water and more active content. Lubrizol currently offers several high-solids products. Because of increasing demand, we are developing additional new high-solids products that will be launched in the near future.
Contact us to learn more about high-solids acrylic emulsions for engineered paper.
