Have you ever gone to peel a sticker but couldn’t remove it from the sheet?
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Sue Chambers
Recent posts by Sue Chambers
3 min read
What Are Adhesive Release Liners? How Do You Select One?
Topics: Adhesives Generally Converting
6 min read
Your Guide to Heat Activated Adhesives
A heat-activated adhesive is a type of adhesive, usually applied to a tape backing, that will not bond at normal temperatures. Instead, it becomes sticky in certain temperatures, wherein the adhesive chemicals are activated and can form a bond.
Topics: Adhesives Generally
6 min read
4 Critical Considerations When Choosing a Wound Dressing Adhesive
Can a skin adhesive serve every type of injury?
Topics: Adhesives Generally Medical Adhesive Tape
6 min read
What is Rotary Die Cutting? Problems it Solves and Uses
The US craft industry is worth over $44 billion USD.
Topics: Converting Rotary Die Cutting
5 min read
The Advantages of Using Double-Sided Medical Tape
Attaching one substrate to another.
Topics: Medical
4 min read
5 Advantages of Proper EMI and RFI Shielding Techniques
With so many people relying on the apps on their phones, glitches can feel like the end of the world.
Topics: Electronics
8 min read
Your Guide to Thermal Interface Material
You think you’ve finally built the perfect sandwich when you suddenly take a bite and realize there’s nothing inside.
9 min read
The Basics of Pressure Sensitive Adhesive Tape
Have you ever wondered how tape works?
Topics: Adhesives Generally
9 min read
An Overview of Thermal Insulation Tape
Thermal insulation tape, like all thermal insulation materials, reduces the amount of heat transfer between objects. The most widely known application of this concept is the insulation that goes in houses to save money on energy.
5 min read
The Problem of Using Rolls of Tape Instead of Die Cut Adhesives
Many flexible material converters become partners with manufacturers in the automotive industry, a highly competitive environment where precision is necessary. The vehicle building process can be compared to die cut adhesives.
9 min read
What is the Correct Gasket Material for Your Next Project?
When something works well, you likely won’t even notice. In the manufacturing world, well-running machines result from precise engineering with the right components to make for a smooth, dependable, and quiet experience. When it comes time to build those machines and consider such parts as an industrial gasket, it’s vital to ensure the right pieces are in the right spots and made to tight tolerances for the most accurate fit.
In your search for the right gasket material, you’ll find an abundance of options. What is gasket material, and what material will you need? Before you engineer your next flexible material, read our overview of gasket materials to see what might work best.
4 min read
Top 5 Benefits of Using Heat-Resistant Gasket Material
“High temperature” in the industrial world means something entirely different than what you’ll see during the evening weather forecast. When machines are working hard to create products or keep operations running smoothly, moving parts, chemical reactions, and even the substances being used can conjure up scorching temperatures that must be kept in check.
When you account for these extreme temperatures with the proper equipment, including a suitable gasketing material, you can keep productivity moving at a regular pace. To illustrate this, we’ve gathered the top 5 benefits of using heat-resistant gasket material for your reference.
Topics: Gaskets
4 min read
5 Questions to Ask Before Selecting a Rubber Gasket Seal Adhesive
Simply put, a gasket seal prevents a liquid or air (most often) from going somewhere you don’t want it to go or doing something you don’t want it to do.
Gaskets can be made of metal, plastic, silicone, polymers, neoprene, foam, or rubber. A majority of the time, an adhesive holds them in place, depending on the application (of which there are literally thousands). Yet, not all gasket applications require an adhesive. For instance, some are held on by mechanical fasteners: bolts (classic car engine) or screws (watch).
None of this is news to you, likely, but here’s something new. Think of gaskets as the function it performs, not the construction of the piece itself (its material or shape). So, a gasket can simply be a piece of 3M VHB tape used in a cell phone screen to prevent rainwater from entering, or a piece of double sided tape used within a membrane switch touch panel.
Topics: Gaskets
3 min read
Is Your Adhesive Tape Converter Limiting Your ROI?
Manufacturers rely on adhesive tape converters to provide accurate and high-performing adhesive components that add value to projects. Converters with decades of custom adhesive solutions experience — most often full-service adhesive tape converters — put a premium on ensuring that finished components/products also drive businesses’ bottom lines.
Topics: Converting
5 min read
Life-Changing Applications of Adhesive Tape: 10 Essential Uses!
I bet wherever you’re reading this blog article, at this very moment, you’re within an arm’s length of pressure sensitive adhesive tape (or PSA tape) in some form.
That’s how prevalent its use is in our modern world. And for good reason! PSA tape has helped change how we spend our days and has improved (and saved!) lives. It’s so important that we previously dedicated a 3-part series to pressure sensitive adhesive tape.
In this blog article, let’s touch on some of the many ways adhesive tape is used (we included 10) and how often you likely use it without even knowing.
Topics: Adhesives Generally Converting
4 min read
3M™ VHB™ THIN FOAM TAPES ARE THE ULTIMATE ELECTRONICS BONDING SOLUTION
When inspiration hits like lightning, the result can be a cutting-edge electronics product. From smartphones to HDTV screens to marine navigation systems, electronics manufacturers rely on the thinnest products in 3M’s VHB portfolio to fit into electronic assemblies, places where thick VHBs cannot fit.
Electronic device engineers know space usually isn’t the only challenge. Modern electronics bonding solutions often must address impact resistance, waterproofing, heat resistance, and/or reworkability to create a device with reliable functionality. In addition to overall performance, some surfaces — paints, metals, low surface energy plastics — are hard to bond and require unique acrylic foam tapes such as 3M VHB tape.
When a spark of creativity results in devices optimized for the IoT, 5G, and beyond, specialized VHB tape is often needed as well. This article dives deeper into how pressure sensitive adhesive converters meet the high standards of the electronics industry today and into the future.
Topics: Adhesives Generally Electronics 3M VHB Tape
4 min read
What is Tensile Strength and How is It Measured?
The stress is on.
You’re under pressure to create the best possible product. That includes choosing the right material, the right adhesive, the right format, the right elongation at break percentage … even the right converter!
That’s because you know your product will be under pressure, too. It has to perform with a certain tensile strength — the maximum force or stress a material can withstand while being pulled apart from both ends before failing. That’s why it’s also called “breaking strength.”
Topics: Adhesives Generally
5 min read
Pressure Sensitive Adhesive Tape Series #1: Performance and Versatility
NOTE: This article is #1 in a 3-part series on the power and versatility of pressure sensitive adhesive tape. It’s really a celebration of applications and possibilities. Part 2 covers 3M™ VHB™ tape as a superior bonding solution, and Part 3 offers help on choosing a converter.
When manufacturers need to bring together two or more surfaces, either temporarily or permanently, they often choose to use a viscous substance — adhesive bonding — because of its many assembly advantages and versatility. The materials used to do this could be adhesive tape, adhesive film, glue, epoxy, or something else, however, pressure sensitive adhesive tape (PSA) is becoming increasingly popular.
4 min read
What It Means to be a 3M Preferred Converter
Excellence.
Every business wants to achieve it, and every business wants to partner with other businesses that achieve it. And while saying you have it is easy, being recognized for it by an industry leader is quite another thing.
For companies in the converting industry, being honored for excellence by 3M is the top of the top. It shouts to the world that a converter deeply understands the industry leader, and the industry leader trusts them.
This article explores the origins of the 3M Preferred Converter program, digs into why it matters in a highly competitive marketplace, and shares why customers should care.
Topics: Adhesives Generally Converting 3M News
5 min read
4 Key Materials When Building Microfluidic Devices
Although small in size, microfluidic devices carry an enormous burden. Patients and caregivers rely on them for accurate test results and crucial information at the point-of-care. They screen for cancer, monitor blood glucose, detect pathogens. As they transport and protect samples of blood or other fluids, consistent and reliable performance is imperative. What could be more important?
Topics: Microfluidics
1 min read
How Thermally Conductive Adhesive Tape Boosts Performance of Electronics
Many electronics products require specific adhesives that dissipate heat. Thermal interface materials (a combination of high-performance acrylic adhesive and highly conductive ceramic particles) enhance performance by minimizing reliability concerns and reduced operational lifetimes that are often affected by heat.
Topics: Adhesives Generally Strouse News 3M News Electronics
3 min read
3M Automotive Masking Tape Best Practices To Boost Paint Production
Is your paint process one of the most scrutinized steps in your entire assembly process?
How’s that department performing? Experiencing any bottlenecks?
Whether manufacturing for automotive, military, aerospace, industrial, or electronics, every industry expects the highest quality product. And, with the painting process usually being quite complex, there can be many delays and rework.
Topics: 3M News
3 min read
Elongation : What is it and Why Does it Matter?
Have you ever seen this spec listed on a material data sheet?
“Elongation at Break %”
To understand it, and realize why it’s important in adhesives, let’s first tackle two definitions.
Topics: Converting
8 min read
Foam Gaskets - Foam Gasket Tape - An Ultimate Guide
Any time a mechanism requires superior barrier and bonding features, gaskets are ideal. However, these handy devices are far from one-size-fits-all.
While many gaskets are comprised of flat materials such as paper, rubber, metal, silicone, felt, and neoprene, foam delivers impressive sealing capabilities that are important to know.
Topics: Foam Gaskets
1 min read
Strouse Designs and Starts Producing Face Shields
Strouse is proud to now offer two versions of a face shield that are made entirely in Westminster, MD. Both masks offer a soft foam headband, anti-fog PET, one size fits all adjust-ability, and latex free materials. We've designed the construction of these masks to be fully automated on our presses.
10 min read
The Importance of EMI Shielding
About every 11 years the sun's magnetic field flips. North becomes south and south becomes north. This change causes solar storms on the sun's surface that send solar flares careening towards Earth.
Topics: Electronics EMI Shielding
2 min read
Strouse Completes Establishment Registration with FDA
Strouse, an industry leading adhesive tape converter and custom manufacturer is proud to announce its medical device establishment registration with the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The registration builds on Strouse’s wide range of adhesive tape converting capabilities and allows for deeper penetration into medical device projects and the overall medical and healthcare market.
