Print out your best vacation snaps, stick them on the cupboard – and then peel them off again without a trace after your next trip… It really works! Using the new self-adhesive Tacklite Stick&Go 4.0 photo-print media from Nopar International in Bremen, Germany. The DIY stickers’ optimal adhesion and easy removal is achieved using Levamelt synthetic rubber from specialty chemicals group LANXESS. Nopar and LANXESS also joined forces to engineer a smart finishing process that ensures the best possible print results using inkjet or even laser printers.
“Decorating your own four walls with stickers has always been a rather hit-and-miss affair,” says Stefan Schmitt, Managing Director of Nopar International GmbH. “The problem is the stubborn sticky residue that is often left behind when your remove them. We set about investigating an alternative – and hit upon Levamelt from LANXESS. This smart material finally allowed us to develop a superbly sticky coating that really does leave no trace on surfaces such as glass, wood or even paint. And because the adhesive is plasticizer-free, there is no risk of the substrate being altered by these additives gradually ‘leaking’ out.”
“This is because we can manufacture our Levamelt EVM rubber with different polarities by varying the proportion of the vinyl acetate component,” explains Michael Herrmann, an expert in synthetic rubbers from the High Performance Elastomers business unit at LANXESS. “So we were able to offer Nopar a version that is perfectly suited to a variety of everyday substrates.”
A fair degree of high-tech also goes into the manufacturing process for the new photo-print media from Bremen. Together, Schmitt and LANXESS developed a production method for applying the Levamelt in precisely measured thicknesses to the reverse of the Tacklite film without creating tensions in the carrier, as can occur when coating coextruded films, for example. After conventional rolled material is stretched out to apply the print coating and then attached to a backing paper, it can no longer relax – and tends to turn wavy in the printer. “In contrast, our new process produces tension-free Tacklite media that lie nice and flat in the printer without developing any waves – ensuring exceptionally high-quality print results,” Schmitt says. It seems the quality of the coating impresses even professional photographers.
The new process offers even more advantages. It means designs can now be printed to the new Tacklite media using laser printers and photocopiers. If the media needs to stick to less uniform surfaces, such as wallpapers, the technology is also suitable for small custom runs with different adhesive properties. Schmitt therefore is already considering expanding his product range along these lines, and a major printer manufacturer has already expressed an interest in the Tacklite Stick&Go 4.0 films.
“The potential applications for these removable media are really vast,” Herrmann says. “Apart from self-adhesive photos, there is scope for not just advertising posters, which can simply be printed and stuck in shop windows at the drop of a hat, but also wall decals, hand-designed decorations for kitchen tiles and DIY living-room friezes that can move house when you do and go up again in your new home… All because Levamelt makes the Tacklite Stick&Go 4.0 media so easily reusable.” “I am quite sure our customers will come up with a whole host of their own ideas, too,” adds Schmitt.
LANXESS is a leading specialty chemicals company with sales of EUR 8.3 billion in 2013 and roughly 17,000 employees in 31 countries. The company is currently represented at 52 production sites worldwide. The core business of LANXESS is the development, manufacturing and marketing of plastics, rubber, intermediates and specialty chemicals. LANXESS is a member of the leading sustainability indices Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI World and DJSI Europe) and FTSE4Good as well as CDP’s Climate Disclosure Leadership Index (CDLI).