Afera Tape College editorial 2017
Who came
Last month’s networking and learning event, the Tape College, was once again deemed a success by its 85 participants. Attendees came to the Brussels Marriott Hotel from 10 European countries plus Russia, India and Turkey from the departments of general management, R&D, customer/technical service, sales, marketing, engineering, production, processing and quality assurance of companies along the entire adhesive tape value chain. Industry newcomers, often many from the same company, participated in the two-day event to pick up the fundamentals and current technical essentials of adhesive tape technology. Instead of arranging for individual in-house training for their new personnel, adhesive-tape-related companies had been versed on the unique takeaways from the Tape College.
The updated programme was carefully structured to reflect relevant technical, market and regulatory developments. Impressions taken away from the tape business’ premier educational event were that this was a cohesive group of industry colleagues with the goals of gathering as much information from and interaction with others as possible – and that this was truly a knowledge transfer event, focussed on delivering as much expertise as possible from the adhesive tape field experts. Many attendees liked the Q&A with speakers in the foyer during coffee breaks.
Feedback
According to a paper survey conducted at the conclusion of the event, “adequate time for networking” and “overall schedule of events” were the two highest-rated aspects of the Tape College. Respondents rated the overall event a 4.22 out of 5. The most popular presenter and presentation on average was Michael Ortner (Mondi Release Liner) and his paper “Release coatings applied”. This was followed closely by Prof. Dr. Andreas Gross (Fraunhofer IFAM) with “Modern surface treatment methods” and Peter Harendt (Lohmann GmbH & Co. KG) with “Insight into tape conversion technology”.
Afera Secretary-General Astrid Lejeune felt this Tape College in particular was the Association’s best yet, largely to do with the effective working group which organised and hosted the event. This was led by Evert Smit, Afera Technical Committee chairman and head of R&D at Lohmann GmbH & Co. KG., and included Reinhard Storbeck, director of R&D at tesa SE; Gert-Jan van Ruler, application specialist at Eastman Chemical Middelburg B.V.; and Ian Grace, global technical support manager for tapes and labels at Bostik B.V.
This same working group will organise Afera’s next educational event, the 1st Global Adhesive Tape Summit on 11-15 June 2018 at the Sheraton Munich Arabellapark Hotel in Munich, Germany. Contact mail@afera.com for preliminary details.
Here is what some Afera Tape College participants had to say:
The Tape College is a good chance to meet industry colleagues from different businesses all at once – not only during the presentations but the evening hours as well. Everyone can learn something during the working programme.
Burkhard Wombacher, Swiss Quality Paper AG
For me, Afera’s 8th Tape College was a very interesting and valuable event. I gained a lot of knowledge about tapes and adhesives, important in furthering my job. I also met a lot of nice people from other companies of the adhesive business
Daniel Gärtner, Lohmann GmbH & Co. KG
I would recommend that anyone who is new to the tape industry attend Afera’s Tape College; it gives you a great overview of the whole business, from “A” as in “adhesion” to “Z” as in “zone coating”. Everything related to tapes is covered, from formulation of PSAs and the chemistry of polymerisation to the different types of backings and liners – and even how PSAs are converted. But the most useful aspect of Afera’s event is getting the chance to meet with the network of suppliers to the tape industry that are present.
Patrick Kunert, Lohmann GmbH & Co. KG
The Tape College was quite useful for my daily work. I really liked the structure of the programme and that each part, i.e. release coating, backing, adhesives, application and testing of a tape, was introduced.
Klaus Menzel, BASF SE