The new year is here, and there’s no better time like now to make sure your adhesive inventory has not gone beyond its shelf life. The shelf life is considered the period of time an adhesive remains usable after being manufactured and shipped to the facility.

At RSI, our on-site lab has many products in inventory that must be checked to ensure fresh, usable product for customer testing. We periodically discard any adhesives that have gone beyond their shelf life.

To provide you with a good idea of how long you should hold onto your product, we’ve put together a general guide indicating the estimated shelf life for the types of adhesives we carry:

•   Adhesive Squares™- 2 years
•   Hot Melts- 2 years
•   Water-Based Adhesives- 3-9 months
•   Cyanoacrylates- 1 year

When adhesives stretch beyond their shelf life, they begin to lose their effectiveness. This can cause pop-opens and field failures, which can easily be avoided by discarding any old product you may have. We also recommend rotating your stock, using the oldest first.

If you have any questions regarding the specific shelf life of one of our products, or need to replenish your inventory, call us at 1-800-844-1740 or use the contact form below. We’d be happy to ensure that you are using product within its optimal time frame.