The use of waterborne adhesives, especially synthetic emulsions, has grown enormously in recent times. This has been driven primarily by the need to find alternatives for solvent based adhesives due to their adverse environmental consequences. Other advantages of waterborne emulsion adhesives include their adhesion to a wide variety of surfaces, rapid setting speed; ability to adjust resistance to water, heat, or solvent; good machining properties; and ease of compounding.
Many polymers can be used in manufacturing waterborne emulsion adhesives with various balances of strength and flexibility. Thermoplastic polymers such as acrylic, vinyl acetate, and vinyl acetate copolymers make up a significant portion of this market. However, certain elastomers such as styrene butadiene rubber, neoprene, and polyurethane are also employed. Even waterborne epoxy emulsions compete for certain niche applications. 1 The major submarkets for these types of adhesives are packaging and converting, followed by textiles, woodworking, building and construction, transportation, and consumer.