Industrial adhesive tapes are one of the greatest inventions in the world of construction and manufacturing, but not acknowledged that much. The applications of tapes are that much vast that they cannot be listed properly and counted, it is a universal tool with uncountable applications from the heavy industrial automotive assembly lines, aerospace, to simple and small insulation in electronics.This simple invention has a fascinating chemistry at work, main in the adhesives part which is used to bond the backing material with the surface. And to understand this chemistry helps us understand the working of these tapes along with the ability of chooseing the right kind of tape for the right task, also it makes us able to do some developments in this technology for filling in the gaps which we usually observe when we had a task at hand to bond two things together.Some Basics of AdhesivesAdhesion is the process in due to which two surfaces are stick together. In this interaction several forces come into play, which include the basic mechanical interlocking of two pieces, the van der waals forces which exist between inter molecules, and the hydrogen bonding which is stronger than the van der waals forces, and the strongest of these is the chemical bonding. In the case of tapes, their adhesives should be able to form a strong bonding with the substrates on which the tapes are applied, which are usually in the form of metals, glass, or wood. So, the bonding of adhesives and their backing material is dependant on the factors of the substrates like the cleanliness of them, their surface energy, and the texture or surface design of those materials. Types of AdhesivesThere are many types of adhesives used in the industrial tapes for fulfilling different types of tasks and for suiting different substrates materials. These include acrylic, rubber, silicone, and epoxy adhesives.Acrylic AdhesivesThese types of adhesives are UV rays resistant, temperature resistant, and also durable. These adhesives form bonding with the substrate using mechanical interlocking and also from the chemical bonding. Due to such characteristics they have a versatile outdoor applications. Rubber AdhesivesThese types of adhesives are used for their quick fix with the surface, and also due to their flexibility. But there bonding is not that stong and consist of mechanical interlocking and weak van der waals forces. So, we can not use these adhesives where the temperatures are high and also where there is chemicals involved. Silicone AdhesivesThese adhesives have a good temperature resistance, and are flexible and durable, so this makes them ideal for the use at high temperature areas. In this both chemical bonding (which is a strong bond) and mechanical interlocking helps in the bonding of the materials, so making a durable bonding which can bear extreme conditions with changing material conditions. Epoxy AdhesivesThese are the most durable and yet least common types of adhesives used in tapes. These adhesives provides the strongest bonding with the surface and are resistant to many chemicals and extreme conditions. But their use is resitricted to special applications where the strength and extra durability is required. Chemistry of Adhesive BondingThe adhesive bonds consists of several steps which are followed for the accurate and strong bonding of the surfaces. First of which is the surface preparation in which we have to keep the surface on which the adhesive is to be applied is cleaned. Any contaminants can be weaken the bonds between the surfaces, so dust particless, oil remanants, or even moisture has to be removed from the surface first. This cleaning of the surface increases the surface energy which improves the bonds. The metals have high surface energy than the plastics or woods.Then the adhesive should be completely spreaded onto the surface for even and strong bonding, and for complete spreading of the adhesives, those should be less viscous in the start of the curing process, also the surface energy should be better for a better bond.The curing of the adhesives is different for every types of adhesive being used, after spreading of the adhesive it start the process of curing which can be of some minutes to some hours, and as the time goes on the adhesive solidifies making the bond stronger. In this curing process the bonding, either weak or strong, is developed creating forces of attraction between the adhesive and the substrate. These bonds can be effected by the environmental conditions like the temperature and the humidity levels, which if are favourable for the reactions can make the bonding strong, or if unfavourable then they can even stops the reactions midway so that a complete and stronger bonds are not made between all the molecules of the surface and the adhesives.The chemistry of the adhesives can be used by the users of the adhesives for making the conditions favourable for the types of adhesives they are using which can increase the efficiency and productivity of their products. So, a deep understanding of these adhesives will be favourable for the consumers as well as for the development of much better adhesives in the future, as this field of adhesives and industrial tapes is a never ending field, with innovations being made daily for the fullfilment of the needs that are coming ahead day by day.
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