Adhesion Failure of Adhesive Connections
Tracking down the cause
Adhesive failure can manifest itself in multiple ways. A label does not tack, a new adhesive connection does not bond or an existing bond comes loose again. In many cases failed joints can be attributed to inadequately pretreated or contaminated surfaces. This applies to bonds on all common substrates such as glass, metal or polymers. If adhesive failure, cohesive failure or delamination of layers occurs and an obvious cause of the defect cannot be identified, surface analysis methods in the Tascon laboratory (e.g. XPS, ToF-SIMS) are often used. The selection of the analysis method depends primarily on the exact error pattern of the adhesion failure and the prior information already available. The following example to determine the cause of the failure of address labels was solved with the help of ToF-SIMS analysis in our laboratory.
Adhesive failure of labels
Loss of adhesion upon exposure to heat
The use of self-adhesive labels is established in many production areas. Adhesive failure of a label can lead to serious problems, ranging from safety issues to logistic nightmares.
A mayor logistics company experienced this when their address labels would peel off the parcels when the outside temperatures increased. This led to delays in delivery or a complete loss of the transported goods.
A ToF-SIMS analysis of defective transport labels in our test laboratory showed contamination of the adhesive side with a modified polysiloxane, which was not detected on the adhesive side of defect-free label batches. Just traces of this modified polysiloxane were able to cause the adhesive failure of the used labels. Based on this knowledge, the chemical composition of the adhesive film was specified more precisely. The problem was solved by changing the adhesive used on the labels.
Tascon - your partner for the analysis of adhesion failures
Tascon is your competent partner laboratory for all questions on the analysis of adhesion failures concerning all kind of surfaces. If you need support in finding the reason for the adhesion failure, delamination of layers or the analysis around this isue, please do not hesitate to contact us. Our friendly and competent team looks forward to your inquiry and will be happy to advise you personally and without obligation.
Get in touch. Contact one of our analytical professionals:
+49 251 625622-100
