Dow Chemical : and Nordmeccanica Announce a New Revolutionary Lamination Technology in Solventless Adhesives

DUSSELDORF, GERMANY - May 31, 2016

Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: Dow) and Nordmeccanica SpA announced today the launch of a revolutionary lamination technology, using both adhesive and machinery hardware advancements. SYMBIEX™ Solventless Adhesives, Dow's new ultra-fast curing adhesive technology, combined with the innovative Duplex SL One Shot™ lamination line from Nordmeccanica, redefines packaging lamination, offering converters best-in-class conversion efficiency improvements, shorter time-to-market and total conversion cost reductions.

'We are excited to launch this breakthrough technology at Drupa, just 18 months after the signing of the joint development agreement with Nordmeccanica.' commented Greg Bunker, global business director for Dow Adhesives for Packaging, Textiles and Hygiene, 'By combining Dow's adhesive development know-how with Nordmeccanica's machine pioneering, we succeeded in introducing the biggest innovation in packaging lamination in 50 years.'

'Dow and Nordmeccanica worked together to reimagine the current conventional lamination process and address some of its fundamental limitations, namely combining fast curing, which requires a fast-acting adhesive, with outstanding pot life, which requires a slower-acting adhesive,' added Vincenzo Cerciello, VP Technology at Nordmeccanica Group, 'With SYMBIEX™ and the Duplex SL One Shot™ laminator, we are able to slit just 90 minutes after lamination compared to today's 24 hour standard. This is an exciting development and game changing innovation for the lamination adhesives market.'

Other benefits include:

• Conversion efficiency improvements: no mixer and no pot life concerns
• Lower cost-in-use: reduced line downtime and curing inventory
• Ability to form a package in less than one day from lamination, and achieve food compliance within one day for most film structures
• Very high web speeds and may offer increased speeds on metallized and foil laminations versus conventional solvent less
• No misting and better wettability
• Eliminates adhesive scrap
• Reduced line downtime for cleaning, reduced curing inventory
• Bond-quality checking possible 30 minutes after lamination

Packaging Lamination Redefined

Compared to a conventional lamination line, the Duplex SL One Shot™ laminator features a unique system to handle the solventless lamination process, enabling the two adhesive components to come into contact as late as possible in the lamination process.

With two independent high-precision coating stations, the two films are pressed together only in the lamination nip station where the curing of the adhesive takes place. This process eliminates the need of a mixing unit and any pot life concerns, and offers reduced line downtime and easy cleaning.

'We were able to overcome the pot life constraint by moving the start of the chemical reaction to the lamination nip, and to develop the fastest two-component solventless adhesive seen in the market today,' said Marco Re Fraschini, Technical Service & Development leader EMEA, Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics.

'Prior to this technology development, if a converter needed to supply laminates with fast turnaround, they would have had to use solvent-based, water-based, or another alternative cure method. SYMBIEX™ adhesives and the DUPLEX One-Shot™ provides excellent bonding with no VOCs, much reduced energy consumption, and fast-curing enabling just-in-time delivery,' emphasized Vincenzo Cerciello.

Accelerating Innovation to Market

'Innovation is at the heart of everything we do at Dow and underpins our commitment to delivering technical know-how and advanced solutions to our customers,' continued Dow's Bunker. 'This breakthrough technology redefines today's standards in solventless adhesives, enabling converters to accelerate innovation into the value chain through a simpler and more flexible lamination process, improving their competitiveness and responsiveness to meet today's fast-paced market needs.'

'Innovation is also in the DNA of the Nordmeccanica Group, stressed Antonio Cerciello, Nordmeccanica Group group president, 'We constantly think outside the box, focusing our efforts on bringing new design, new technologies and new advantages to converters. We have always been innovators at the forefront of our industry, and that is what makes us different. I am proud of our collaboration with a key partner like Dow; it is what we need in a complex environment to continue delivering reliable and effective innovation'.

Visit Dow and Nordmeccanica at DRUPA 2016

Customers and media are welcomed to visit Dow, at stand A29, and Nordmeccanica, at stand B42, in Hall 15 to discover the new technology in action during daily live demos:

• On June 1-9 at 11:00 a.m. and 14:00 p.m.
• On June 10 at 11:00 a.m.

About Nordmeccanica Group

Nordmeccanica is a global leader in coating, laminating and metallizing machinery for flexible packaging and industrial applications. Founded in 1978, Nordmeccanica has manufacturing and business operations in Italy, USA, China, India and Argentina, and a network of agents in 87 countries. Nordmeccanica employs 280 people world-wide, with a production area of 30,000 square meters. The company has an installed based of over 2,700 machines globally, and had annual sales of €100 million in 2014. Nordmeccanica laminators and coaters are used to produce multi-layer packaging for the food and pharmaceutical industries. The company also manufactures machinery for the metallization of paper and plastic film. More information about Nordmeccanica can be found at www.nordmeccanica.com.

About Dow Adhesives

Dow Adhesives is a comprehensive portfolio of acrylic, epoxy, polyolefin and polyurethane based adhesives, binders, coatings and dispersions for diverse applications in automotive, building and construction, consumer durables, packaging, textiles and hygiene markets. The portfolio is accessed through multiple businesses within Dow to optimize technology depth and market connection, yet leverages expertise across businesses, through our vision of Science that Connects. Dow Adhesives for Packaging, Textiles and Hygiene is part of Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics, based on leading technologies and expertise for lamination, coating and bonding in packaging applications including films, tapes and labels, in binding applications, and in hygiene and medical applications.

About Dow

Dow (NYSE: DOW) combines the power of science and technology to passionately innovate what is essential to human progress. The Company is driving innovations that extract value from material, polymer, chemical and biological science to help address many of the world's most challenging problems such as the need for clean water, clean energy generation and conservation, and increasing agricultural productivity. Dow's integrated, market-driven, industry-leading portfolio of specialty chemical, advanced materials, agrosciences and plastics businesses delivers a broad range of technology-based products and solutions to customers in approximately 180 countries and in high-growth sectors such as packaging, electronics, water, coatings and agriculture. In 2015, Dow had annual sales of nearly $49 billion and employed approximately 49,500 people worldwide. The Company's more than 6,000 product families are manufactured at 179 sites in 35 countries across the globe. References to 'Dow' or the 'Company' mean The Dow Chemical Company and its consolidated subsidiaries unless otherwise expressly noted. More information about Dow can be found at www.dow.com.

For editorial information:

Erik van Oosten
Dow Europe GmbH
+41 44 728 2036
evanoosten@dow.com

Giancarlo Caimmi
Nordmeccanica SpA
+ 39 0523 596411
nordmeccanica@nordmeccanica.com

Sergio Di Gesù
Porter Novelli
+32 2 413 03 40
sergio.digesu@porternovelli.be