Influences on adhesives

The adhesive on a label can be affected by four key factors; Type, Time, Surface, and Temperature.

When choosing an adhesive, you need to bear in mind how your labels might be affected by each of these factors.

TYPE OF ADHESIVE: Adhesives are designed and produced with different strengths. A standard adhesive has a good initial tack and settles to full adhesion in a few minutes or hours; removable adhesives have a weaker adhesive that provides low initial tack and high tack adhesives have a stronger adhesive that has a high initial tack.

TIME AN ADHESIVE HAS BEEN APPLIED FOR: Adhesives have a certain initial tack when applied. As time passes, the adhesive will set and strengthen, meaning the longer a label has been stuck onto an item, the stronger its adhesion will be. Removable adhesives are designed to set at a slower rate than standard adhesives, while high tack labels are designed to set very quickly.

SURFACE AN ADHESIVE IS APPLIED TO: When a label is applied, the adhesive sinks into any troughs in the surface and sets there. If a surface is too smooth (ie there are very few troughs or the troughs are very shallow) or too rough (ie the troughs are very deep) then the adhesive will have a smaller surface area to adhere to before it sets, which results in a lower strength of adhesion.

TEMPERATURE AT WHICH AN ADHESIVE IS APPLIED AND STORED: The chemical reaction that takes place as an adhesive sets is influenced by temperature. At higher temperatures this reaction is sped up and the adhesive sets faster, which results in higher adhesion than at lower temperatures. Labels that are applied at one temperature and then later exposed to or stored at higher or lower temperatures may also have their adhesion affected by the change in temperature.

These four factors interact with each other, so we advise customers to request a sample to test in their own unique conditions.

To see the various types of adhesive we have available, visit our Special Adhesives Range Page.