Nozzle Difference

Nozzle Plugging & Inconsistent Bead Placement?

Hot melt nozzles are the last piece of equipment adhesive contacts when dispensing to production lines. Because of this, hot melt nozzles can have a big impact on the performance of your glue patterns. Astro Packaging manufacturing standards provide the highest tolerances to guarantee consistent bead placement and performance for customer applications. Inferior nozzles can cause many production issues such as higher adhesive usage, plugged nozzles, and incorrect bead placement.

Higher adhesive usage is a double negative for hot melt applications. The obvious and most costly issue is the increase in glue consumption, which can be hundreds of thousand dollars each year. With inconsistent nozzle standards, operators increase system pressure and over-apply glue on the substrate. Over-applying glue increases glue usage and also can cause issues with longer set times and bond degradation. Astro Packaging nozzles provide consistent glue beads to conserve glue usage and improve bond strength.

Bond strength is another problem for applications using inferior nozzles that is caused by inconsistent orifice sizes. The orifice of a nozzle provides the path for glue to pass through from the applicator to the substrate. Due to adhesive degradation from sitting at high temperatures, char and other debris form in the tank and are passed through the system to the nozzle. If the char cannot pass through the nozzle, it will plug the nozzle or cause distorted glue patterns because of partial plugging. These plugged nozzles and distorted glue patterns are detrimental to bond strength and often leads to downtime and maintenance issues.

Incorrect bead placement is a headache for maintenance operators because this has the biggest impact on bond strength and performance. Consistent glue placement is crucial to providing bond strength at critical parts of a package, and any irregularities can lead to pop-opens or damaged goods. The strength of a box relies on glue to bond to provide necessary strength to seal.

Astro Packaging also has system maintenance kits to help minimize char, nozzle plugging and more. See our cleaning kits, hot melt purge, or nozzle cleaning kits below:

• Equipment Cleaning Kit: https://astropackaging.com/search-pages/misc-parts/tank-cleaning-service-kit
• Nozzle Cleaning Kit: https://astropackaging.com/search-pages/misc-parts/nozzle-cleaning-kit-10-pack
• Hot Melt Purge: Available in 1 gal, 2.5 gal, and 5 gal options.

Contact Astro Packaging for the best nozzles for all your hot melt applications. We provide superior performance and minimize nozzle plugging and adhesive degradation for Nordson® hot melt equipment, Slautterback®, Graco®, ITW Dynatec®, Robatech® and more. Astro Packaging and Adhesives. 800-642-7876 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.