Jowat Hazard-free PUR Hot Melt Adhesives Make Wood-based Panel Production Sustainable and Ensure Occupational Safety

Jordan has been refining custom wood-based panels in its panel processing center since 2018. Lamination is accomplished via a continuous process, specific to the piece and even for batch sizes of one. Jordan and Jowat teamed up to change to hazard-free PUR hot melt adhesives throughout all of production both for the health of all employees in the company and for a long-term guarantee of quality.

A medium-sized family-owned company from the city of Kassel, Germany, Jordan has regarded itself as a partner of trade and craft with a strong commitment to service quality and customer focus since their founding in 1919. In its more than 100-year company history, it has grown from its original niche exclusively as a supplier in the timber trade. Today, Jordan has developed into the leading European supplier of high-quality interior furnishings and goods, widely recognized on the market with its brands. Close association with the trade was also what motivated Fred Himmelmann, managing director at Jordan in the timber division, to expand what had purely been a trading company. Hence, an internal production department was formed a handful of years ago. “The demand for ready-to-use furniture parts rose sharply, right alongside an ever-increasing call for quality in these goods and for our flexibility,” he reflects. “This is why we decided to form an internal production department exclusively for trade and industry.” Fred Himmelmann’s vision: Jordan’s industrial production department with maximum proximity to the customer and their needs.

“A partner who thinks the same way we do”

The seed was planted for the idea, and implementation of the ambitious project followed promptly. Under the leadership of seasoned master carpenter Andreas Bachmann, Jordan’s panel processing center came to be in 2018. Today, wood-based panels in a whole range of sizes are individually laminated with all types of materials in a state-of-the-art production hall near the company’s headquarters. Edgebanding is put in place upon customer request, and the panels are sent to the customer via Jordan’s distribution network. The ordering system for this is designed to be as flexible for customers as possible. They can configure their custom panels 24/7 on the easy-to-use online platform and can place the order right then and there. “We are already set up from a technical standpoint to produce batch sizes as small as one. And thanks to our many years of experience, we can offer our customers a selection of more than 800 high-value HPL styles,” Andreas Bachmann proudly explains. “But without a partner who thinks the same way we do, this project would have been completely unfeasible,” he adds visibly pleased.

Jowat has been engaged as an adhesive partner and has assisted with process optimization going back to the initial planning of the system. On top of their similar company histories and sizes, one thing, in particular, unites the two companies: working on equal ground with the customer to develop highly service-oriented and trusting relationships with them. “Industrial lamination processes are very complex and depend on considerably more factors than just which adhesive is used,” explains Thorsten Albers from Jowat Technical Sales. “Some examples of the other factors are the initial quality of the materials to be laminated, the adhesive application, dwell times, temperatures, and humidity during production as well as subsequent storage and transport. All of this has an immense degree of influence on the quality and lifespan of the laminated product. The best situation for us is when we have already been brought into the project during the planning phase and can work together with our customer early on to start turning all the different dials.”

Down to zero complaints

The adhesive manufacturer puts in this behind-the-scenes effort to go the extra mile, which has proven to be valuable for Jordan. “We calibrate every panel delivered once more before lamination to achieve an optimal surface finish. An automatic humidifying system keeps ambient conditions in the production hall perfect at all times. We also keep adhesive logs to record the ambient temperature and humidity for every batch so we can guarantee the best possible quality. Our system’s automatic transport mechanisms are also designed to be easy on the materials from start to finish,” explains Andreas Bachmann. “Intensive teamwork with Jowat has helped us achieve a frictionless lamination process in the panel processing center. Complaints are trending down toward zero.”

The bonding process is currently being put under the microscope in support of occupational safety. “A large part of the panel processing operation’s success of course comes from our employees who work there. When it comes to extensive adhesive application for flat lamination in particular, employees have to get very close to the process and the adhesive. There is a particular hazard from diisocyanate-containing adhesive emissions that we cannot eliminate,” Bachmann says. With their colleagues’ health and safety in mind, Jordan decided to change to non-hazardous PUR hot melt adhesives and cleaning products throughout all of the panel production.

Time and cost savings

The PUR hot melt adhesives Jowatherm-Reaktant® MR 609.93 and Jowatherm-Reaktant® MR 608.90 with hazard-free labeling are now used exclusively. The change of production processes to the new monomer-reduced adhesives for flat lamination and edgebanding was completed without a hitch and a deviation in quality thanks to the support of the Jowat experts. “In terms of performance, our monomer-reduced products are on par with conventional adhesives, if not superior. That makes the change simple in most cases,” explains Jowat’s Thorsten Albers. “Some customers even see considerable time savings in the process when hazard-free alternatives are used because of their somewhat higher initial strength.”

Adhesives with hazard-free labeling also implicate time savings in another respect. Starting in August of 2023, all employees who work with diisocyanate-containing adhesives, even if they are just involved in logistics, will have to have extensive training at regular intervals. This entails great expenditures of time and financial resources for companies. “Jowat has been offering monomer-reduced hot melt adhesives as an alternative for almost 20 years now. Our customers can use these without having to hold and track training,” Thorsten Albers explains emphatically. “We must advise the customer in product selection and guide them through a smooth changeover.”

The hazard-free PUR hot melt adhesives are part of the Jowat Green Adhesives line and are there to help companies make production processes more sustainable. In addition to products with a focus on occupational health and safety, this product line also includes resource-saving and energy-efficient solutions. The transition to laminating processes that use products with hazard-free labeling has been a success for Jordan, which is certainly thanks in part to effective collaboration with Jowat. A further expansion is certainly not out of the question. In other words, there is potential to achieve even more shared success.