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Reduced Solvent Use


Reduced Solvent Use
With the new eco-friendly ACX technology, tesa is revolutionizing the high-strength permanent adhesive market.

Environmentally friendly technologies
Part of our continuous improvement process, and an essential component of the tesa environmental program, is our consistent shift toward eco-friendly production technologies. Since the first large-scale system for solvent-free coating was put into operation at the tesa plant in Offenburg in 2002, we have been determinedly expanding on this technology, which was developed and patented by tesa. Our plants in Offenburg and Italy have produced the majority of their products without using solvents for several years now. In the case of products that, for technical reasons, cannot yet be produced without solvents, we use advanced systems for solvent recovery and reuse.

tesa has succeeded in making a technological break-through with its new proprietary ACX technology, which has been in use since 2011. The state-of-the-art method, subsidized by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, enables eco-friendly production of double-sided acrylate adhesive tapes for high-strength permanent adhesive bonds. What makes the globally unique production unit started up in the tesa plant in Hamburg-Hausbruch so special is the fact that, compared with conventional technologies, the new method only uses solvents in the first process step, extracts them again immediately during the following drying process and returns them to the cycle. Thanks to this technology, each year solvent and energy consumption is cut by 50%, CO2 emissions are reduced by around 2,000 metric tons and process water can be dispensed with entirely. These results have also won praise from our customers. Following initial successful applications in various test markets, the introduction of the complete product range will take place in 2012. The extremely resistant adhesive tape solutions are ideal for use in permanent adhesive bonds in the automotive, electrical, wind and solar industries as well as for applications in the illuminated sign market or in the construction industry.