CONVERTING NEWS
AND INSIGHTS

The beginning of a custom die cut converting project usually goes something like this:

The injury healing process can be long and painful whether wounds are open or closed, shallow or deep. 

OK, here’s the tagline: Die cut adhesives are incredibly versatile and can solve business challenges in various industries.

Polyurethanes are the largest class of polymers worldwide, with a global market of $79 Billion. As a class, it’s rapidly expanding.

Breakthroughs in materials science continue to add opportunities for innovation in materials science and global industries, and taking advantage of those opportunities yields a big reward.

Just ask the electric vehicle industry. Top EV companies increasingly use polymer foam as a thermal interface. This keeps powerful Li-ION batteries safe and prevents them from overheating in electric vehicles.

PORON foam is one such groundbreaking material.

Kiss cutting allows us to engineer more complexity and functionality into customer solutions while keeping costs low, especially with pressure-sensitive materials.

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.

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.

Few things are more rewarding than taking material and transforming it into a product. It’s what manufacturing is all about. Raw materials are impressive, but they’re not exactly something people actually want or can easily use.

An adhesive converter typically takes large rolls of raw material — tape, films, paper, plastic, foam, soft metals, and more — and “converts” them into usable parts. As technologically advanced as the materials themselves may be, the large, continuous rolls (called master rolls) provided by a manufacturer (such as 3M) are of practically no use to customers; they’re too large to handle, not the right shape or size, or the material isn’t finished the way it needs to be.

High-speed. Accurate. Versatile. You want your die cutting method to fulfill your needs because it’s an essential part of manufacturing. Realistically, however, you may have to make some choices based on the project’s priorities. High precision or high volume? Super speed or complex cuts? Low cost or low maintenance?

Let’s imagine you’ve created a new electronic good! This product is amazing, and you would love to show it to the world. But what if the battery catches on fire? That would mean a lot of faulty products and unhappy customers. Worst of all, you will get a bad reputation and potentially even lawsuits.

The world of adhesive technology is an exciting place these days! Adhesive manufacturers are pushing the limits of science and technology, and the industry is enjoying:
• Product advancements and innovations
• New, sophisticated converting equipment
• Improved production rates, reduced labor costs, minimized waste, less rework

Unsolvable application challenges are now being solved as manufacturers look to use new materials in their processes and products. Yet, technological advancements on their own aren’t worth much. They require industry knowledge and insights from an expert adhesive converter to capitalize on advances in technology.

Automation isn’t the future. It’s here today, and without using it wisely, most companies are at a competitive disadvantage. Yet, automation isn’t an “all or nothing” decision. There are levels of automation, especially in converting, that make it easier to start working smarter and more efficiently.

This article explores various automation levels and uses examples to magnify the importance of automation within everyday converting projects.

A converted product’s carrier or backing material is one of the most important decisions when designing pressure sensitive adhesives. The carrier has to possess the right qualities to match the application (will it be hand applied or automatically dispensed?) and the processing (will it be slit or die-cut?).

Recently, we explored the basics of release liners in this article. In today’s blog post, we’ll dive into the physical components of backing (or “carrier;” we’ll use both terms throughout) and how it helps the converting process.

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.

Of course, as a converter of flexible materials we love to talk about pressure sensitive adhesives (PSA). However the unsung hero of the adhesive world may be the release liner (often called “carrier” or “backing”). This is the product — typically a coated paper or film — that carries the sticky material and serves as a protective covering until the pressure sensitive adhesive is needed. Think of the shiny paper that carries a sticker or label.

A release liner’s base may be paper, polycoated paper, film, or even a metalized film. The liner can be coated with silicone or non-silicone to ease separation from the adhesive. It all depends on the precise delivery and dispensing system needed for the application.

In many cases, the release liner is one of the most critical decisions when designing a PSA. It has to have the right qualities and features to precisely match the application (hand applied or automatic dispensing) and processing (slitting, die-cutting, etc.).

The good news is you have options.

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.

If you're someone who likes to get your hands dirty and create new things, you're far from alone. In fact, the US craft industry is worth over $44 billion. If you're someone who's contributed to this booming economy, then it's likely that you've used die cutting services before in your arts and crafts- or at least have heard of them before.

Bonding Tapes are pressure sensitive adhesives built with the purpose of mounting and bonding different substrates together.

Bonding tapes are most often double coated adhesives built around a film with adhesive on both sides of the film. The adhesives are then covered with a liner so that the adhesive is not exposed.

All materials have an inherent surface energy ranging from high to low. Plastics, cloth, and paper products typically have lower surface energy in comparison to other materials. A low surface energy will make it difficult to bond inks, adhesive, and other coatings to a product. That’s where corona treatment comes into play. These materials can be corona treated to change their surface energy allowing inks and adhesive to create a strong bond to the surface of the product.

The majority of products produced at Strouse come in roll form. That means they are placed on a liner and wound on a core. This means that cores are literally in the middle of most of our products. But what is it?

A core is the plastic or cardboard ring used in the center of a roll for support to wind up die cut materials. In simple terms, it's what's left over when you've used all of the tape on a roll.

Strouse engineers design products to work in conjunction with automated processes. Products are often put on cores so that they can be placed on a machine and easily dispense. It’s not only important for us to know what a product is used for but also how it will be used. This goes a long way in determining what type of core your product needs.

Cores come in all sorts of varieties: plastic or cardboard, printed cores/not printed, different height/width, different diameters, and an option for core labels. Let’s look at each.

Lamination is the combination of two or more materials that function as a backing on a web or rolled good.

Adhesives are any materials meant to temporarily or permanently hold two or more objects together through surface contact.

Adhesives are best classified into categories based on the forms they come in: tapes, films, liquids, pastes, and solids. Strouse works specifically with Tapes and Films.

Tapes are the most popular