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New Water-Dispersible Material Poised to Revolutionize Paper Industry
East Walpole, Mass. – April 2008 – Hollingsworth & Vose Company (H&V) today introduced a new water-dispersible paper that has the look and feel of a regular paper product – but when placed under water dissolves within seconds into small particles that can be easily rinsed away. H2Oudini™ Water-Dispersible Paper can be written or printed on, folded and torn just like ordinary paper.
H2Oudini is an option for numerous specialty applications. Potential applications mentioned include dissolvable paper labels, wash-away embroidery backing, disappearing writing paper or paper clothing; easily degradable packaging materials such as dissolvable packets for dry chemical portions; medical applications; and security applications such as dissolving stationary for classified documents.
“H2Oudini products are a part of a growing new product line for us, with variants of the technology still in the works. Given the eco-friendly and bio-degradable implications of this product, there has been a great deal of interest,” said Jay Bennett, Marketing and Business Development Manager at H&V (www.hollingsworth-vose.com). “Currently we are largely producing H2Oudini for rinse-off label applications but there are so many interesting possibilities for this technology,” said Bennett.
Bennett noted that H2Oudini was a tricky product to develop and produce given papermaking is a wet process.
“In fact our engineers discovered through this challenging process how to make products that either dissolve more quickly or slowly,” he said. “Depending on the application, it can actually be advantageous for the paper to dissolve more slowly. Paper converters are surprised to find that despite its fragile nature under water, the product has good tensile strength, allowing them to coat, laminate, emboss, or form the product for various uses.” Another interesting characteristic… the paper has the unique ability to hold up to oils, alcohols and emulsions.
H2Oudini was developed as part of H&V’s proprietary HVision™ technology platform – an in-house collaborative process that is designed to enhance the development and commercialization of breakthrough products.
To learn more about the H2Oudini Water-Dispersible Paper and to view a video of how the product works visit http://www.hollingsworth-vose.com/h2oudini. For additional information, contact H&V by phone: 508-850-2000 or email: info@hovo.com. About H&V
Hollingsworth & Vose Company, established in 1843, is a global leader in the supply of technically advanced filtration media, battery separator materials and industrial nonwovens. The company operates manufacturing sites and research centers in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Visit Hollingsworth & Vose Company on the web at www.hollingsworth-vose.com. |
