Afera, the European Adhesive Tape Association, recently announced the launch of its premier technical learning event in 2024, the Tape College, to be held 12-14 March at Le Méridien Munich, Germany. Now in its eleventh edition, the biennial event is set to be hosted and taught by the best and brightest of the field of adhesive tape over 21 lectures. Unique to the European tape industry, Afera’s 11th Tape College will provide 3 days of learning about the fundamentals and current technical essentials of adhesive tape technology to professionals relatively new to the market. It is also a coveted networking event for the global tape business, new and veteran members alike.
A unique educational and networking event
Held this year in the accessible city of Munich, Afera’s Tape College is a well-established technical learning event offering a back-to-school experience in which field experts lecture on the principles involved in the selection, manufacture, conversion, application, testing, sustainability and EU regulation of tapes. A panel discussion follows each of four sessions. Afera has also ensured that the Tape College provide ample opportunity for networking outside of the conference room. In addition to welcome cocktails, buffet lunches and a number of coffee breaks, a conference dinner is planned on 13 March (Day 2).
A programme deconstructing the complexity of adhesive tapes
The working programme will consist of 4 sub-themed clusters of in-depth lectures over 3 days: Why tapes?, Tapes deconstructed, Tape production and Tape use & testing. The following 21 topics will be covered:
- Made to stick: a general introduction to tapes
- Intro to pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) technology
- The world of acrylic PSA: solvent-based and UV hotmelt
- Fundamental emulsion polymerisation for high-performance water-based PSAs
- SIS block copolymers for hotmelt PSAs
- How silicones serve as high-performance adhesives and release agents in tape applications
- Viscoelastic properties of high-performance tapes
- Polymeric foams as backing material for technical tapes
- Polymeric films for technical tape applications
- Designed for recycling: call for value chain collaboration
- Release coatings applied
- Co-extrusion manufacturing of adhesives
- Coating and drying technologies in roll-to-roll production: state-of-the-art processes and current developments for coating and lamination lines
- Tape conversion technology
- The chemistry of release coatings
- Modern surface treatment methods
- How to test tapes reliably
- Afera’s Flagship Sustainability Project
- How E.U. regulation affects tapes
- The versatility of pressure sensitive tapes.
Participants are both Afera member and non-members
“Afera has created this exclusive opportunity in which entrants to the world of tapes can engage with experienced and well-established technical professionals and their businesses. If you are in R&D, customer and technical service, sales, marketing, engineering, production, processing and quality assurance—even general management—you will benefit from receiving a solid overview of the current technologies of the tape business, from pre-adhesive compositions through testing, from sustainability to legislative issues. Furthermore, Afera routinely sees a number of returning participants who either want to brush up on their field knowledge or, just as important, to network. Afera’s 2022 event welcomed attendees representing 44 companies from 10 European countries,” Afera announced in a recent press release.
A diverse team of dedicated organisers from the adhesive tape industry
Afera’s premier educational event for those new to the world of adhesive tape technology is formulated and hosted by a focussed working group:
- Reinhard Storbeck, director of R&D at tesa SE
- Martijn Verhagen, team leader for liquid coated adhesives at Lohmann GmbH & Co. KG
- Michel Sabo, R&D application development manager of Nitto Belgium N.V.
- Matthias Renka, regional technical sales manager at Organik Kimya San. Ve Tic. A.S.
- Ralf Rönisch, head of R&D at Coroplast Fritz Müller GmbH & Co. KG
- Danny Beekman, technical support manager at DRT
- Ian Grace, technical sales manager at artimelt AG, and
- Astrid Lejeune, secretary general of Afera.