Testing the rolling tack of pressure-sensitive adhesive materials. Part I. Novel method and apparatus

O. Ben-Zion, A. Nussinovitch*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Tack is an essential property of pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) materials. A novel method and custom-made apparatus for testing the tack of PSA and related materials were developed to simplify the measurement of bonding and debonding processes. A modified rolling cylinder tack test was employed using a custom-made device attached to an Instron Universal Testing Machine. By predetermining the angle (position) of a cylindrical probe-roller hanging down from the Instron's cross-head and lying parallel to a rotary drum covered with a tacky substance, the pressure of the tacky probe and its rolling velocity could be controlled independently. Using this method, it is shown that the bonding and debonding processes have a remarkable influence on the shape of the tack vs. velocity curves. At high velocities (∼0.12-2.12 m/s), debonding occurred before efficient contact between the PSA and substrate was formed and the measured tack force tended to decrease. A statistical procedure was used to differentiate between the 'initial' and 'complete' processes of bond formation. As the longitudinal load increased from 0.2 to 22.0 g/cm, the dwell time (period of bond formation) decreased from 3.6 × 10-3 to 0.9 × 10-3 s and from 0.3 × 10-3 to 0.1 × 10-3 s, to form 'complete' and 'initial' bonds, respectively. In general, additional longitudinal load compensated for short-term bonding, in which bond formation could not proceed to completion. The experimentally observed features of the rolling tack vs. velocity of the rotary drum for a typical commercial PSA material validated the usefulness of this novel methodology and apparatus to serve as an important tool for studying time-dependent bonding and debonding processes simultaneously. The ease of execution and the high reproducibility enable it to be used to study the experimental tack of adhesive materials.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)227-237
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Adhesion Science and Technology
Volume16
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2002

Keywords

  • Bonding
  • Debonding
  • Dwell time
  • PSA
  • Tack

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