Afera Technical Seminar

The 12th Afera Technical Seminar will take place in during European Tape Week 2027, which will run from 20-24 September at the Pestana Douro Riverside in Porto, Portugal. For a review of the 11th Technical Seminar held in 2025 as part of Afera’s 1st European Tape Week, please click here . For more information about Afera’s 2026 technical event, the 12th Tape College, visit www.aferaeuropeantapeweek.com.

Afera’s Technical Seminar is our biennial forum for the latest scientific, technological and operational developments affecting adhesive tapes and their manufacture. It gives industry professionals direct access to new research, processes, materials, tools and ideas that can strengthen products, production and technical decision-making across the value chain.

Launched in 2002, the Technical Seminar has become a regular fixture in Afera’s technical-event calendar, held every two years in alternation with the Tape College. Historically, it took place in Brussels, while the 11th Technical Seminar moved to Thessaloniki in 2025 as part of the 1st Afera European Tape Week. Its compact multi-day format combines expert presentations, panel discussions, audience questions, shared meals and dedicated networking.

A completely new programme is developed for each edition by Afera Technical Committee Members and a programming group drawn from the adhesive tape industry. Presentations focus on emerging technologies and practical advances in pressure-sensitive adhesives, polymers, backing and release materials, coating and converting, curing, automation, testing, modelling and product performance. Sustainability, circularity, regulation, digitalisation and changing end-user requirements are addressed where they directly influence technical development and manufacturing.

Unlike the Tape College, which provides a structured introduction to adhesive tape technology, the Technical Seminar is designed principally for professionals who already have technical or operational experience and want to deepen or update their specialist knowledge. It helps participants follow developments outside their own fields, compare approaches and identify technologies or research with potential relevance to their companies.

Participants include scientists, chemists, engineers, R&D specialists and managers working in technical service, product development, production, processing, quality assurance, sustainability and regulatory affairs. They represent tape manufacturers, raw-materials and equipment suppliers, release-liner and film producers, converters, end users, research institutions, universities and industry organisations. The Technical Seminar is open to Afera Members and non-Members from across the European and international tape value chain.

The event also creates direct lines of communication between technical specialists who may otherwise meet only within commercial or project-specific settings. Panel discussions and informal exchange allow participants to test ideas, raise practical questions and understand how developments in one area of the value chain affect another. This combination of concentrated technical content and access to industry peers has made the Seminar a return event for many participants.

The 11th Technical Seminar was held at the Hyatt Regency Thessaloniki in September 2025 as a central element of the inaugural Afera European Tape Week. Scientists, engineers and R&D specialists explored how chemistry, process design and digital intelligence are changing pressure-sensitive adhesives. The programme covered degradable acrylic dispersions, LED-curable PSAs, biomimicry, polymer design, higher-solids tackifier dispersions, automated formulation and testing, artificial intelligence, UV hot-melt coating, release liners, energy-efficient silicone coating, pyrolysis and product carbon footprint assessment. A joint session with the 68th Annual Conference connected this technical programme with the wider regulatory and sustainability environment, bringing the week’s full audience together. The overall event attracted 185 participants from 20 countries and more than 100 companies, demonstrating the value of placing technical exchange within a broader programme of Association work, strategic discussion and networking.

The 12th Afera Technical Seminar will take place in 2027, following the 12th Tape College in 2026 and continuing the alternating cycle between Afera’s two technical events. Afera’s Technical Committee and programming group will once again develop the programme around the latest technologies, research and operating challenges affecting the tape value chain. Dates, location and further details will be announced as planning advances.

Afera European Tape Week 2026 website
Read more about our last Technical Seminar during ETW 2025
Photos 2025

Afera’s past Technical Seminars, all held in Brussels, Belgium:

2025