PERFORMANCE. SPEED. STRENGTH.

Adhesive strategies for high-speed

corrugating machines

Roman Skuratowicz, Lead Industrial Application Specialist,

NA Industrial Solutions
Bedford Park, Illinois
Adhesive strategies for high-speed
corrugating machines
While corrugators continue to be designed to run at higher FIGURE 2: Overhead cost/MSF vs Corrugator Speed
speeds, there are many variables that impact the ability to 4.5
reach high or maximum speeds. Over the years, corruga- 4
tors have continued to increase maximum speeds at a 3.5

significant rate, however this exponential speed increase 3

Cost/MSF
2.5
is tapering off. Even so, smaller corrugators, which would
2
command efficiencies at 500-600 feet per minute a
1.5
decade ago, are being pushed out of the market by new, 1
wider machines running at tops speeds approaching 1200 0.5
fpm. These highly engineered machines operate under 0
very precise and controlled conditions to meet these speed 800 850 900 950 1000 1050 1100 1150
Speed FPM
challenges, and they have changed the way boxes are
made and valued. When focusing strictly on the mechanics of the corrugator
such as temperature, conditioning, adhesive application,
contact, drying, the blade section and stacker, there are
FIGURE 1: Maximum Corrugator Speed
several rate limiting factors which have been explored and
1200
reported in detail that determine how fast a corrugator can
1000 ? actually run. For example, steam roll design was studied
800 to determine the impact of rotation speed on conden-
Speed FPM

sate flow. The learnings resulted in new roll and syphon

600
designs that avoid condensate rimming at high speeds.
400 Tension control systems have been fine-tuned to handle
200 the torque and stretch of higher speeds without tearing
or unevenly stretching paper. Steam control systems have
0
1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 been improved to provide better control across hot plates
and heated rolls. In addition, the design and precision of
corrugating rolls have also been improved to the highest
With each incremental increase in operating speed, addi- levels for these high speeds, reducing vibration, wear and
tional factors and issues need to be considered. Details defects. And rate limiting changes such as splices, knife
like order length or number of paper changes play into adjustments, and wraps have become more efficient than
the determination of how fast the average running speed ever. One area that still has tremendous impact is
is compared to the maximum machine speed. At higher adhesive make-down and application, and as machine
speeds, short orders also can require faster adjustment speeds increase, the formulation and application of
times and more critical controls of adhesive application the adhesives needs to evolve as well.
and paper conditioning. Even slight errors in adhesive
application can impact board performance, which can
High-speed adhesive strategies
lead to higher levels of waste. Downtime also begins to
Some of the adhesive factors to consider when corrugat-
play a bigger role on average speed. Proper maintenance,
ing boxes include the bonding and drying time, application
operation, and set up – much like a good pit crew at a race
(consistency, slinging, surface penetration), water control
track – are critical to meeting daily performance targets. At
(bond crystallization), total adhesive consumption, and
stake are significant reductions in overhead (plant, equip-
bond performance. Certain factors can be controlled by
ment, personnel and utility costs), which impact the box
typical formulation optimization, but others require addi-
plant’s cost of board.
tional optimization strategies.

page 2
Adhesive viscosity, tack and texture FIGURE 3: Consumption lb/MSF
Viscosity and tack can be controlled by several factors 2.3
in the formulation. Viscosity can be adjusted to meet 2.2
2.1
optimum machine and paper conditions by adjusting 2

Consumption
cooked starch solids, borax level, amount of shear or cook 1.9
1.8
temperature, or with the use of performance additives.
1.7
Likewise, the tack and texture (stringiness, film forming) 1.6
of the adhesive can be controlled by adjusting the borax to 1.5
1.4
caustic ratio, rheology modifiers or can be combined with 0.22 0.23 0.24 0.25 0.26 0.27 0.28 0.29 0.30 0.31 0.32
viscosity adjustment. Care should be taken with texture Adhesive Solids
adjustments as this could also affect adhesive slinging Target 12 mil 10 mil 8 mil
during application, or can result in poor adhesive pickup
or brittle bonds. An important fact to note – higher solids
does not necessarily mean higher viscosity – as both high
solids and high viscosity can be formulated separately. FIGURE 4: Water from Adhesive lb/MSF
Higher solids can add additional value on high-speed 6.5
machines, as it is another means to control moisture added
to the board. 6

lb/MSF 5.5
Adhesive consumption and storage
5
Adhesive make-down systems have gotten smaller over
time as systems were optimized to make adhesive fresh 4.5
and on demand, limiting the amount of adhesive needed
to be kept in storage. While this has significantly improved 4
0.22 0.23 0.24 0.25 0.26 0.27 0.28 0.29 0.30 0.31 0.32
the quality of adhesive (fresher is better), it has in some
Adhesive Solids
instances affected the adhesive supply to machines that 12 mil 10 mil 8 mil
have been upgraded for higher speeds. Specifically, smaller
mixers, 100 gallon and sometimes 200 gallon, can have
trouble keeping up with sustained production speeds Formulating at higher solids also relies heavily on proper
that are 1000 fpm and higher. Batches of adhesive take conditioning and temperature control, both of the liners
time to make, and factors like water and starch addition and medium, but also the hot plate section. Less water
rate, heating time, and transfer to storage are difficult to means less heat is needed on the machine, and in fact
change. Formulating adhesives to maximize the volume in too much heat can lead to bond crystallization rather than
each batch can make an incremental increase in available proper gelling. Crystallized adhesive on the board will look
adhesive. To optimally improve adhesive availability, reduc- good coming off the machine, but after curing will convert
ing adhesive application is a definite advantage. However, to brittle “Zipper bond”, cracking and breaking easily
reducing adhesive application must be done in concert as the board is flexed. A good measure for whether too
with maintaining bond quality, and typically will involve much heat is applied is to examine the board as soon as it
optimizing the properties of the adhesive, specifically tack, cools coming off the machine. Bend and break the board,
viscosity and film forming. specifically at the edges, where temperature problems
are amplified, and look for over-dried and cracking/brittle
A secondary benefit comes from increasing adhesive solids medium. If the medium looks dried out, more than likely
in conjunction with application reduction. By moving the the glue line is as well, and the board may get rejected
adhesive solids up from 26% to 30%, and simultaneously after storage.
decreasing application from approximately 10 to 8 mil, total
dry adhesive consumption on the machine can be held con- In addition to proper adhesive formulation and machine
stant. Properly formulated, the bonded board can meet the temperature control, performance additives can be incor-
same pin adhesion performance, but total volume of adhe- porated to protect and improve the adhesives under these
sive is reduced (meaning less batches per day are needed). taxing conditions. Higher cooked solids have been shown
As an added bonus, less water is added to the board from to improve water holding of adhesives to protect them
the adhesive, reducing dryer load to remove that water. against borderline high temperatures, which can flash

page 3
moisture off too quickly. Carrier starches like Ingredion’s Machine velocity on adhesive
STABLEBOND® modified starch have been used in high At higher machine speeds the bonding time of the adhe-
shear adhesives to enhance the water holding, specifically sive significantly decreases. Temperature can also decrease
on light weight paper grades which are difficult to condi- as contact time between paper and heated rolls decreases,
tion. On almost all grades, liquid performance additives even with increased wrap. Fortunately, newer machines
like CORAGUM® PA-15, or the resin containing CORAGUM® and denser paper can accommodate lower temperatures,
PR-Flex have been used not only to improve the water specifically when adhesive application is reduced. However,
holding of adhesives, but also to change the rheology and contact time in the pressure roll or belts on the singleface,
film-forming of the adhesive. Film forming is a crucial ele- and in the hot plate section go down as speed increases.
ment that determines the cohesiveness of the adhesive, As a result, the adhesive will need to bond faster to avoid
and how consistently it can be applied to the flute tips. As wet, incomplete bonds (white glue lines). Previously the
adhesive application is reduced, glue lines should be moni- strategy was to lower the gel temp of the adhesive with
tored by iodine staining to insure that consistent adhe- higher caustic, however a study on “An Investigation of
sive application is applied across the board. Otherwise, Bonding Mechanisms on the Double-Backer” by Schaepe,
issues like delamination and blistering can arise, reducing Watanabe, and Nanko, demonstrated that adhesive gelling
board quality. Performance additives like CORAGUM® time was complete within seconds regardless of gel temp
PA-15 polymeric resin or PR-Flex performance resin, which or hot plate temperature, and that adhesive dehydration
synergistically crosslink to starch in the adhesive, provide played a more important factor on bond strength and thus
the improved texture and consistency needed for lighter bond time.1 This again points to the benefit of increasing
application on a variety of board grades. adhesive solids to increase bonding speed. Increasing caus-
tic in adhesives, while reducing gel temp, also improves the
FIGURE 5: Film formation and structure
alkali “bite” into papers, improving bonding and surface
penetration. However, because of the impact of low gel
POOR FILM FORMING GOOD FILM FORMING temps on starch swelling and viscosity in storage, care
must be taken to balance gel temp against maximum adhe-
sive temperature while circulating through the system. This
includes any hot spots in piping or glue pans that can begin
to swell the adhesive.

Likewise, as adhesive parameters are tightened for high-

speed machines, the consistency of the raw starch needs
to be controlled. Since the pearl starch used in adhesives
is an unmodified starch product, certain attributes such as
the natural viscosity, caustic absorption level, and natural
gel temp will vary by region and growing season. However,
attributes from the corn wet milling process can be con-
trolled, such as insuring viscosity is not damaged in steep-
ing, or that granules are not damaged during drying (alkali
GAPS IN FILM STRUCTURE GOOD FILM STRUCTURE sensitivity). These can affect batch-to-batch consistency
as well as adhesive stability in storage, specifically with
low gel temp and high solids adhesives. While there are
various methods for these measurements, it is important
that the starch supplier provide consistent material load
to load, and consistent control analyses on the COA’s with
these loads. In addition, the starch supplier should provide
a specific specification range for their product which
demonstrates the control points used to ensure that cus-
tomers will get consistent performance in their adhesive.
Ingredion’s Unmodified (Pearl) Corn Starch meets these
high consistency standards, a reason why it is the starch of
choice for corrugators world-wide.

page 4
An often overlooked issue on high-speed machines is the Key takeaway
effect of celled glue roll speed in glue pans. At the top While the higher speeds of both modern and future corru-
machine speeds, these miniature cells can whip and froth gating machines will continue to provide challenges to box
adhesive, leading to foam generation. This foam can impact plants, the ongoing development of optimized equipment,
both the application of films on the flute tips, but more performance grade ingredients, and the best practices of
detrimentally interfere with glue level indicators, causing knowledgeable industry suppliers and manufacturing will
the machine to starve off adhesive flow to the glue pans. make it possible to meet those challenges. To best prepare
This becomes further complicated with water quality or for ongoing developments in technologies, box plants
hardness, which can contribute to foam. In these cases, need to partner with their equipment and ingredient
defoamers such as CORAGUM® DF can be added to adhe- suppliers, to best utilize their expertise and experience in
sives to control excess foaming. meeting the leading edge of speed and efficiency.

Wet strength and specialty grades REFERENCES:

Finally there are considerations for both coated or spe- 1. Schaepe, Watanabe, and Nanko. An Investigation of
Bonding Mechanisms on the Double-Backer, TAPPI
cialty papers, and specialty board grades including water Corrugating International, 3-15, April 2004.
resistant boards. Treated and coated papers can often have
higher porosity (denser paper) as well as higher water
holdout (Cobb, water drop) and more difficult to bond
surfaces. Board grades that are required to have water
resistance will utilize wet strength resin to provide wet
strength to the adhesive. These resins require time, heat
and pressure to perform properly, all of which could be
scarce at high machine speeds.

Higher adhesive solids have been demonstrated over the

years to improve both bond adhesion and water resistance
in adhesives. Formulating higher cooked solids, or the
addition of tack building additives such as CORAGUM®
PA-15 or HS-30 performance additive have improved
performance on difficult paper surfaces. To develop water
resistance however, faster acting wet strength resins are
needed because of the short dwell time. Here, Ingredion
has introduced the latest crosslinking technology in the
CORAGUM® SR wet strength resin. The newly developed
performance resin bonds more efficiently and at lower
reactive solids than traditional wet strength resins. For
optimal performance, the blended CORAGUM® PR-Flex
performance resin contains both the fast acting resin
of CORAGUM® SR wet strength resin with the bonding
performance of the CORAGUM® performance additives. In
cases where paper density is high enough to impact adhe-
sive surface penetration, a surface acting penetrant like
CORAGUM® PT wetting and rewetting agent can be added
to reduce surface tension at the glue line and improve pen-
etration. Higher adhesive application will also improve wet
strength performance, but comes at a cost to speed (water
removal). To fully optimize wet strength and specialty
performance, proper balancing of temperature, condition-
ing, application and formulation is required. This is where
the expertise of a full service starch and additive supplier
like Ingredion can provide the best benefit and resources
to truly meet the maximum speeds of today and the future.

page 5
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