Wilmington, DE, May 11, 2005 - - The Pulp and Paper Division of Hercules Incorporated, in co-operation with Columbia Forest Products and Oregon State University have commercialized a new, formaldehyde-free adhesive for the hardwood plywood industry.  The technology should be easily translated to structural plywood and laminated veneer lumber.  Development efforts are underway to adapt it to other wood composites such as oriented strand board (OSB), medium density fiberboard (MDF), and particle board.  Columbia Forest Products has already announced their conversion to the new technology. 

Licensed exclusively to Hercules for the life of the patents, the technology offers an effective cost and performance alternative to urea and phenol formaldehyde resins.  Based primarily on soy flour, the adhesive utilizes proprietary resin technology from Hercules.  While not a traditional player in the building products chemical market, Hercules is “excited to bring new technology to a market that has been looking for alternatives for years” said Charles Robinson, Director, New Business Development.  “Given our focus on the forest products industry through pulp and paper, this is a natural extension of our business.  We believe we have additional technologies that are adaptable to building products” said Paul Raymond, President, Hercules Pulp and Paper Division.

Urea formaldehyde (UF) is used in the majority of North American and imported hardwood plywood panels and has recently been classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the World Health Organization, as “carcinogenic to humans.” Currently there are few no-added-formaldehyde (NAF) alternatives to UF-based adhesives on the market, and all are significantly higher in cost.

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