Automating case and carton sealing with a lower-temperature hot-melt adhesive is an idea whose moment has come. Pioneering a total system that integrates pellet loading through application, Tampico Beverages licensee Tyler Mountain Water, Paducah, KY, traces its installation to October 2005. Plant manager Sandy Thomas tells PD, "The system has worked very well for us." Others queried verify the merits of the new method that virtually eliminates char and the expenses and downtime that go with it.

The system in use was introduced at a press conference last month, held by National Adhesives (www.myeasypac.com), a business of National Starch and Chemical Co., at its Bridgewater, NJ, base.

The system is built on the EASY-PAC™ package-sealing solution tradename, which describes what National Starch calls "the first and only 200-degree-Fahrenheit hot-melt adhesive available with an integrated storage, filling and application system."

National Adhesive will supply the user of the EASY-PAC hot-melt dispensing unit with an integrated, auto-fill vacuum feeder with a storage bin and new hoses, nozzles and modules, at no cost. The equipment remains in place as long as the adhesive is purchased and is backed up with a three-year warranty, the company notes.

The new system is aimed at food processing, beverage, personal care, household products, consumer electronics and other applications. With the enclosed, 100-lb hot-melt storage bin feeding adhesive pellets to the enclosed heater tank, the problem of char buildup is reduced, the co. claims.

In Paducah, Thomas says the use of the lower-temperature hot melt versus the earlier 305-deg-F adhesive means startup time savings. "We're up and running in twenty minutes or so," he says.

National Adhesives, 866/266-5565. www.myeasypac.com