By Nick Beardow and Graeme Nutting , Sales and Marketing Director and UK Sales Director, Beardow Adams
SubscribeIt is five years since Beardow Adams, the UK's largest manufacturer of hot melt adhesives, caused a stir in the packaging market with the launch of its award winning BAMFutura range of high performance, thermally stable hot melts - five years in which some competitors have played catch-up, but not overtaken these technically advanced products.
Pic 1. Beardow Adams is Kellogg’s sole hot melt supplier in all its UK and European plants. Because of its versatility, only BAM Futura 1 is specified by Kellogg for gluing the top and bottom flaps of all its cases and cartons.
The BAMFutura range comprises six hot melts, all of which are odour and fume free, that prevent nozzle blockages and enable continuous trouble free production. Their resistance to oxidation has allowed machines to run cleanly for months on end by reducing stringing and eliminating the build up of char in the tank, keeping tanks as good as new.
The company says that its best seller is BAMFutura 1. According to Graeme Nutting, Beardow Adams’ UK Sales Director, this is because it is one of the most versatile hot melts available which can bond a wide range of substrates in hot summer and cold winter conditions.
Pic 2. Beardow Adams’ main BAM Futura manufacturing line in Milton Keynes, England. The plant is the largest single hot melt operation in Europe.
Other products in the range have been formulated for specific applications – BAM Futura 3 for deep freezing down to -40°C; BAM Futura 5 for sift proofing; BAMFutura 6 for bonding ‘difficult’ boards, including treated and varnished; BAM Futura 8 for low application temperatures (115 to 140°C); and BAM Futura 10 for bonding hot filled products where high temperatures and residual heat have caused other adhesives to fail.
BAM Futura's commercial success – the product accounts for over a third of all Beardow Adams' sales – includes an exclusive five year contract with Kellogg to supply the cereal giant with one adhesive (BAMFutura 1) that glues the top and bottom flaps of all its cases and cartons in its UK and European factories.
Pic 3. BAM Futura has outstanding thermal stability – a major contributor to its clean running, no odour characteristic. The tests were conducted at 160°C.
Other household name companies using BAM Futura include Coca-Cola, Nestlé and Unilever. “Like many other organisations, they are enthusiastic about BAM Futura because its properties and versatility reduces their costs,” says Graeme Nutting.
“And of the long list of other benefits they all enjoy, two key ones that I would pick are the purity of BAM Futura’s raw materials, which makes it suitable for direct food contact, and that it is odourless.
Pic 4. BAMFutura hot melts (front) are pearl white – unlike standard grades. They do not fume or emit any odours and will not taint foodstuffs. BAM Futura is also suitable for direct food contact.
“Being odourless means that it will not taint chocolate, butter, cereals and other dry foods – there’s an extra benefit here, too, as operators, who have long complained about the general smell of adhesives in the production area, now enjoy a much better working environment,” he says.
BAM Futura is pearl white in colour, does not fume, can cope with machine speeds producing up to 500 cartons/minute, is fast to melt down, easy to use, clean running and, perhaps surprisingly, competitively priced.
Pic 5. Thermal stability is central to clean and consistent running of any hot melt. New raw material technology, available only to Beardow Adams, produces remarkably stable results in its BAM Futura adhesives.
BAM Futura is a truly innovative product – this was officially recognised in 2002 when it won for Beardow Adams the highly prestigious Queen's Award for Enterprise: Innovation.
Further technical information from Beardow Adams, 32 Blundells Road, Bradville, Milton Keynes, MK13 7HF. Telephone: 01908 574000. Fax: 01908 574060. E-mail: info@beardowadams.com Website:www.beardowadams.com