Adhesion and Automotive Tape

In searching at the specs for two varieties of 3M Automotive Tape, you will see two various levels of adhesion. So, what is adhesion, and what does it mean to tape buyers?

Very first, adhesion (as in adhesive) refers to the degree of stickiness exhibited by tape. Take into consideration, for example, the difference in between a PostIt Note and duct tape. The initial can simply be pulled away, even though duct tape demands that you pull tough if you want to take it off. We would say, then, that the PostIt Notes exhibit low adhesion and duct tape exhibits high adhesion.

And since we have all kinds of makes use of for tape, and can have distinctive time spans in mind, it makes sense to select the adhesion level that works most beneficial for your purposes. If you are tacking a little piece of chrome onto your dash, you might use some thing like 3M Automotive Attachment tape. On the other hand, if you're sticking a fender back on your '57 Chevy, then you will want 3M's VHB tape, which is powerful enough to compare with light riveting or spot welding.

How can you tell which is which, when it comes to selecting a type of tape? Look in the technical specifications section and compare the numbers of the descriptive terms utilised. For example, 'good' adhesion refers to a lighter or less sticky tape, and 'high' or 'excellent' refers to a stickier tape, one that is tougher to pull away from the surface to which it is attached.

This bonding strength is not the only factor to look into in getting tape, but surely ranks as vital. Immediately after all, if you can't get it to stick 1 factor to yet another, it does you no great.

Incidentally, do you know the distinction in between 'adhesion' and 'cohesion'? As Benjamin E. Russ is of the University of California at San Diego explains in Scientific American, "There are two fundamentally diverse components of tape's sticky nature adhesion and cohesion. Adhesion is the binding force between two distinctive supplies, whereas cohesion is the binding force among two similar materials... Hence, the 'stickiness' of tape is brought on by a combination of the molecular forces of the glue material sticking to itself as well as holding onto the substrate."

Take a moment next time you are shopping for 3M Automotive Tape, or any other type of tape, to take into account the important role of that sticky stuff on 1 or each sides of your tape.