Most commonly used hot melt adhesives

Hot melts are thermoplastic hot melt adhesives produced by various adhesive manufacturers.

Hot melt adhesives are widely used in the (food) packaging industry, and at Hotmelt Service we also have extensive experience with specific industrial niches.

Here are the main features and types:

1. The Basics – Hotmelt

If you are looking for a hot melt, you will usually see the name 'specifications' in the technical data sheets.

2. The different basic chemical types

There are hot melts based on different raw materials, depending on the application:

• EVA (Ethylene Vinyl Acetate): The ‘standard’ hot melt adhesive (often yellow-coloured pellets).
  • Use: Simple packaging, cardboard boxes.
  • Characteristic: Cheaper, but may burn (char) if left in the tank for too long.
• Metallocene (Polyolefin): The ‘modern’ variant (often white granules/prills).
  • Use: Frozen food packaging, heavily loaded cardboard, or applications where adhesive transparency is important.
  • Characteristic: Thermally much more stable (barely burns), odourless and less prone to breaking down when exposed to heat. This type fits in well with the “low-maintenance” trend of 2025.
• PSA (Pressure Sensitive Adhesives): Self-adhesive hot melts.
  • Use: Tapes, labels, or products that need to remain sticky after gluing (such as the adhesive strip on a mailing envelope).

3. Main Applications

Hot melts are mainly used in:

• Packaging industry: Closing boxes (American folding boxes), setting up trays and pallet stabilisation.
• Woodworking: Edge banding for furniture.
• Graphic industry: Bookbinding (spine gluing of books and catalogues).

4. Form and Processing

Hot melt adhesive basically comes in two main forms:

• Granules/Pellets: For use in large adhesive tanks (Nordson, Robatech, etc.) on production lines.
• Sticks (Rods): 11mm or 43mm rods for hand-held glue guns, often used for assembly or flower arranging/decoration.
• Blocks (PSA / Self-suppliers)