Using just one basic backbone polymer chemistry, polyurethane adhesives can serve a wide range of applications, from food packaging to structural panels.
The major challenge for adhesive formulators lies in tailoring polyurethane's beneficial properties, like excellent bonding and good tensile strength, to their customers' applications. Particularly for one part and reactive hot-melt adhesives polyurethane prepolymers offer a convenient formulation starting point.
The nature of the isocyanate and polyol and how they're processed have important implications for adhesive performance.
Read on to explore those implications and decide which prepolymer to use.