Avery Dennison, a leading supplier of substrates and adhesives, is showcasing its latest durable materials at the company’s second Durable Goods Label Materials IDEA Marketplace Forum. In addition to new product launches, Avery Dennison will highlight trends in the durables segment for a group of 65 customers.

The event will take place on January 31 and February 1, 2017, at the company’s facility in Mentor, OH, USA.

According to Avery Dennison, there will be a speaker from UL–in order to discuss compliance issues–and an ElectroLux end user. Diane Ewanko, business development manager at Avery Dennison and a digital expert, will host a panel discussion exploring how digital printing can affect the durables market. The panel will include printer OEMs like Jetrion and Spartanics.

Avery Dennison is offering new products in key areas of the durables segment, including its outdoor and automotive portfolios, and enhanced digital capabilities in the marketplace. The company’s customers requested more information on how digital can be successful in the durables space when compared to traditional flexo.

“We want to focus on insights and content that help our customers win in the durables space; ultimately that is our goal,” says Mark Pickner, director, Durables Segment, Americas at Avery Dennison. “Our content rotations at the event will look at segment trends and new content around what’s happening in the marketplace, dynamics on segments, and prototyping–how we can use prototyping for our customers to illustrate capabilities in front of the end user.”

Pickner sees automotive and outdoor applications trending in the durables space. “Automotive growth has been very healthy across the US, Mexico and South America,” he says. “We have continued to do two things with automotive: build our actual product portfolio, as well as build our testing capabilities. Some of the automotive testing has unique requirements.”

Avery Dennison offers an in-house UL Global Client Service Laboratory at its Innovation Center, which is designed to reduce its durables time to market and increase the UL certification process. Avery Dennison has taken the same strides to enhance its automotive labels testing, allowing the company to test against its expanding portfolios.

Durable labeling for outdoor applications spans multiple product areas, from industrial and power equipment to applications requiring high-performance and long life. “Our new outdoor portfolio is built around high performance, long life and peace of mind where the end user can rely on the performance of that product throughout the lifetime of the good,” says Pickner.

Avery Dennison’s new products include its Air Egress line and an 8049 adhesive. Air Egress features bubble-free, smooth applications that prevent distortion and material waste. This solution incorporates three technology areas, which can be illustrated in outdoor durable labeling. Outdoor films require long life and durable UV protection, as well as high-performance adhesives. “A lot of times, these labels are fairly big, and when the end user applies them they sometimes have trouble in the application with bubble entrapment,” explains Pickner. “Those are challenges for end users. So we combine our graphics and high-performance materials on the film level for UV protection, and the 8049 adhesive is a best-in-class, high-performance adhesive. Third, the Air Egress allows the converter to eliminate any bubbles right on application, and those technologies are all incorporated in our outdoor portfolio.”

Additionally, Avery Dennison’s drum label portfolio helps chemical companies respond to new compliance regulations. “As far as I know, we’re the only company that has brought that testing capability in-house,” says Pickner. “The BS5609 is a requirement for drum labeling, and we have that capability in-house. We brought in our own drum-testing equipment and now do our own compliance testing with drum materials, adding to our testing capabilities that similar to outdoor and automotive in order to give that quick turnaround time to an area like drum labels.”

The Durables Forum allows customers to see these portfolios and testing capabilities first-hand, and provides an opportunity to interact with experts. “Our guests want to hear everything from the front end to the segment dynamics to technical information, as well as capabilities on prototyping and insights from end users,” explains Pickner. “I think we’re hitting on all the right areas.”