A Sticky Decision: Choosing the Right Custom Adhesive Product
Have you ever found yourself “stuck” with a product? Like when the standard adhesive products you’ve tried just aren’t delivering the results you need for your pressure sensitive product. Ameri-Cal is your answer when “off the shelf” products fail to deliver the boost your project needs. For decades, we have produced custom adhesive solutions for printers, die cutters, and other complex process converters. Ameri-Cal’s products perform as designed, without being over-engineered.
Choosing the right adhesive isn’t as simple as it might seem. There are hundreds of possible adhesives, in addition to multiple additives that enhance a compound. We take a consultative approach to finding the right adhesive solution, investigating why other options have failed, and assessing how ours will be different with lab tested results.
These are the important variables that influence the right adhesive system:
The End Application
The end application is a critical part in trying to determine what the right adhesive is for a project.
When discussing the end application, the detail needs to be more in-depth than simply “it will need to stick to plastic.” You could expect us to ask for the specific type of plastic, if the substrate is flat or has some kind of texture, and the intended goal for the pressure sensitive system. The intended purpose helps our team engineer an adhesive that will meet your individual need/end application.
Environment
What kind of environment will the adhesive be exposed to during its lifetime?
Adhesives can weather and fail prematurely under intense conditions. Will the adhesive be applied to a substrate in extreme cold? What about in unrelenting heat?
These types of environments will drastically impact the bond strength and lifespan of the product.
Some applications will be clean, dry and in a controlled temperature like inside the home.
Warning labels on appliances, for example, will deal with significantly fewer external factors than an application under a car hood. A pressure sensitive adhesive under the hood of a car will need to withstand extreme engine heat, severe winters and other issues like oil or battery acid. All external factors and scenarios must be considered when picking the right solution.
Other influencers like humidity, UV rays, water exposure, vibrations or even the application in terms of manually or robotically applied to the substrate will come into play when choosing the right adhesive.
Release
Different end products, like the protective screen on a new cellphone or around a tv, aren’t meant to last forever. In a scenario like this, the adhesive will need to cleanly release without leftover residue.
Different adhesives will allow for easy removal or a hold that is meant to last. Figuring out the overall needs and how a buyer wants a product to act throughout its life will be important in the selection of the right adhesive.
Do you have a product that could use a better adhesive? Contact us to learn more about our consultative approach and our custom products.
