“The trick is quite simply to develop an adhesive raw material that is polar or non-polar, as needed, so that one can tailor it to the substrate surface as well as possible,” says Herrmann. And LANXESS has precisely such a material in its product range: Levamelt®.

Strictly speaking, Levamelt® consists not of one raw material but of several. “The special feature is that we intentionally assemble the material from two molecular components: one is polar, the other non-polar. LANXESS is the only manufacturer in the world able to operate an innovative production process enabling both of these components to be mixed in almost any proportions.”

The results are polymers – rubbers – that come out of the reactor polar or non-polar as needed. Or with surface tensions somewhere in between the two. And they can be mixed – in any proportions and even with other raw materials for adhesives. “In this way we can develop adhesives with polarities matched exactly to the surfaces to which they are to adhere,” says Herrmann.