Beardow Adams
of glass bottles, in response to new regulations that are being established in Sweden and Germany next year.” In Adrian’s opinion, there are four main categories that customers are keen to fall into when pursuing a green solution for their products. “Sometimes, people do not necessarily have a clear idea of what they are looking for, but they know they want something. Usually, they are asking for a product that is either recyclable, biodegradable, compostable, or bio-based. Each of these approaches contains its own challenges. Starting with recyclability, it is not easy to go for one solution that will work equally as good everywhere, because different countries have different levels of recycling infrastructure installed. This is why we need to treat each customer individually and take into account the specifications of their environment before developing a customised adhesive that allows the product it goes into to be recycled. “The biodegradable and compostable adhesives are quite similar to one another, but the issue with them is to determine after what period of time you want them to start to biodegrade,” Adrian goes on. “We have looked at the materials available to
produce biodegradable solutions and at this point in time, there are companies that offer biodegradable solutions, but they seem very unstable and not fully functional. We pride ourselves on the quality of our products and because of that, we have chosen to continue to develop with raw materials as they become available for these types of glues, but not go to market just yet, because we do not think they represent the quality of an adhesive a customer would want nor the functionality their adhesive requirements need. Instead, we are focusing on the fourth type of requirement clients have, namely, that we produce bio-based adhesives. This means that we are buying our components from sustainable sources. We feel this is the right direction to go in, because there is a full cycle of buying sustainable materials, putting them into an adhesive and then into a product, and finally using it as a raw material again at the end of its life.” Due to the fact that each project Beardow Adams undertakes is heavily customer - and geographically - specific, the company has to demonstrate a very high degree of versatility in satisfying individual requirements. As Adrian notes, however, this is exactly where the
manufacturer’s strength lies. “We have a very quick turnaround in our technical development and it really helps that we operate in such a wide range of sectors, because we can apply our knowledge from one industry to another and draw inspiration from past projects.” While its sustainability efforts will remain a priority for the company in 2020, Beardow Adams is also conscious that it needs to fill the capacity of its German site, which will be another focus for the business in the coming 12 months. “From a sales perspective, we are seeing some growth in certain Asian markets, so another target of ours is to develop this further. Last but not least, thanks to the success we are having with our woodworking materials, we are now starting to look at producing in Eastern Europe, where we are expecting to attract a lot of interest from prospective customers,” Adrian concludes.
Beardow Adams Products: Adhesives www.beardowadams.com www.manufacturing-today-europe.com l 39