At the Core of Avery Dennison Acrylic-Based Tapes
For Avery Dennison, acrylic-based tapes are a go-to. A staple even. They make up the majority of Avery Dennison’s portfolio. In fact, in their new Core Series™ Portfolio, six out of the nine main adhesive types are acrylic-based options.
Avery Dennison features six different acrylic types in the Core Series™ Portfolio to cover a wide array of application needs. Considering their usefulness across all industries, we thought it would be helpful to provide a quick survey of the six acrylic options.
With the following, Avery Dennison demonstrates that their acrylics can offer you the performance your project calls for.
Low VOC Acrylic
As you can glean from the names, these first two options focus on providing low VOC performance. VOC stands for volatile organic compounds, which evaporate off tapes and affect air quality. For this reason, these organic compounds are federally regulated in several industries such as the automotive sector.
Since you don’t want to be stuck in your vehicle breathing in these compounds, Avery Dennison offers low VOC acrylics that are much healthier for us to be around. The low VOC Acrylic choice here is the economical option when your project requires such performance.
Applications:
- Bonding to various foams in automotive
- Seat heating
- Speaker grills
- Flooring
- Vinyl
Example Tape featuring Low VOC Acrylic: FT 2018X
High Performance Low VOC Acrylic
When tape is referred to as high performance, it usually means that the tape can withstand harsh environmental conditions. This is definitely the case for Avery Dennison’s High Performance Low VOC Acrylic. Its high-performance traits include handling temperatures 100°F hotter than the above-mentioned Low VOC Acrylic option. It also meets most automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM) requirements.
Applications:
- Bonding various foams in automotive interiors such as door pillar cloth, carpet fixation, insulation, arm rests, and NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness)
Example Tape featuring High Performance Low VOC Acrylic: FT 8270
General Purpose Acrylic
Here, we arrive at the “go-to, bread-and-butter” of Avery Dennison’s acrylics. If you’re looking to test a tape sample from the Core Series™, we definitely recommend trying out a tape using their General-Purpose Acrylic.
For example, their FT 1123 may be the perfect option for you. It’s so sticky that Avery Dennison product engineers nearly always throw it on when testing new applications. They do this because it really works on just about everything.
To give you an idea about how sticky FT 1123 is, here’s a quick tale from the depths of Avery Dennison’s testing labs. Late one night, a couple scientists fashioned a dart board and then rolled up adhesives to throw. They called it, “Adhesive Darts.” They tried it with FT 1123, but it ended up being so sticky that they couldn’t throw it. The balled up adhesive just stuck too well to their fingers. So, if you’re unsure which tape to reach for, make sure to test FT 1123. Unless, of course, you’re playing Adhesive Darts.
Applications:
- Foam bonding
- Heat shields
- UHMWPE (a heavy-duty polyethylene)
- Thermal insulation
Example Tapes featuring General Purpose Acrylic: FT 1123, FT 1126
LSE Modified Acrylic
This acrylic type is specifically made to bond well to low surface energy (LSE) materials. Such are materials that are especially tricky to stick to. These include powder-coated paints and plastics such as ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA), polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyvinyl fluoride (PVF). Another feature of this acrylic option is excellent environmental resistance, for example, to temperatures up to 350°F.
Applications:
- Heat shielding
- Painted metal
- Acoustical absorption
- UHMWPE (a heavy-duty polyethylene)
Example Tape featuring LSE Modified Acrylic: FT 3043
High Shear Acrylic
As the name explicitly states, this option supports the highest shear strength rating of all the other acrylics. Shear strength is a tape’s load bearing ability and vital to jobs that calls for mounting.
Since it also offers great performance for outdoor environmental conditions, you can use this acrylic adhesive for mounting projects outside. Several of Avery Dennison’s foam tape options use this High Shear Acrylic. This combination of the adhesive’s load bearing strength and the foam’s gap-filling qualities make it ideal when bonding between two rigid surfaces.
Applications:
- Polyether urethane bonding
- Mirror bonding
- Various wall-mounting needs
Example Tape featuring High Shear Acrylic: FM 2454
High Performance Acrylic (HPA™)
Like mentioned above, when you hear high performance think environmental resistance. For example, Avery Dennison’s HPA™ adhesive withstands temperatures up to 400°F. It also features great chemical resistance, especially when it comes to plasticizers. Plasticizers are often what makes various plastics soft and flexible. But these same chemicals can wreak havoc on adhesives, degrading them to the point of failure.
Case in point, HPA™ is like a force field against plasticizers.
Applications:
- Graphic attachment
- Nameplates/dome labels
- Membrane switches
- Electrical shields
- Polycarbonate
- Veneers
Example Tape featuring HPA™: HPA™ 9392
Industry Example: Appliances
Several companies in the appliances market depend on Avery Dennison’s acrylics. These businesses include refrigerators, ovens, dishwashers, washing machines, microwaves – the list goes on. Here is a quick tour of a few of the different adhesives at work in appliances.
- General Purpose Acrylic: attaching coils to inner surface
- High Shear Acrylic: mounting emblems and control panels, bonding frames together
- LSE Modified Acrylic: attaching decorative trims
- HPA™: assisting “foaming” insulation process, controlling heat flow in ovens and cooktops
Industry Example: Electronics
Just like with appliances, the electronics market leans on Avery Dennison performance tapes for several of their innovations as well. Here’s a quick taste of relevant applications.
- General Purpose Acrylic: lens bonding
- High Shear Acrylic: mounting batteries (high temperatures), sound damping in everything from keyboard strokes to laptop motors
- LSE Modified Acrylic: attaching control panels, keyboards, and calculators
Want to try one of these acrylic-based tapes for yourself? Request a free quote from us today, and we can quickly find you the exact Avery Dennison performance tape to do the job.
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