We will look at some of the key milestones in the development of pressure sensitive adhesives and tapes and products made from them, beginning with crude formulations for medical plasters and tapes in the mid-1800s, progressing to the first industrial masking tapes in the 1920s, and then the explosion of products based on synthetic polymers including acrylates, block copolymers, and silicones. What began as intuition driven formulation using natural products is now a true area of materials science. In the 1950s, Carl Dahlquist was the first to identify the key mechanical properties necessary in all pressure sensitive adhesives and we now understand enough about these materials to design adhesives using fundamental polymer science principles. A full quantitative understanding of the interplay between surface interactions and mechanical properties in determining adhesive performance is still an area of active investigation, however. Some of the most important research results in the science or pressure sensitive adhesion will be reviewed.

Pressure sensitive adhesives and tapes: From intuition to science

256th National Meeting (2018)

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