Evaluation of pressure-sensitive tape adhesion and backing directionality by excimer laser methods

Abstract

The effects of 248 nm KrF excimer laser irradiation on a pressure-sensitive adhesive tape bonded to a glass substrate were investigated as a possible method to evaluate the quality of adhesion, as well as the directionality induced during manufacture. The model pressure-sensitive tape consisted of biaxially-oriented polypropylene (PP) tape coated with a hot-melt rubber resin. Analysis of the front-shot experiments, which were performed by irradiation through the PP backing, allowed correlation between the excimer laser irradiation-induced detachment and the peel adhesion strength. For this purpose, peel tests were performed before and after laser shots. The directionality induced during manufacture resulted in a more ablated area in the strength direction than in the transverse direction when the bonded tapes were irradiated with an elliptically-shaped laser beam above the ablation threshold. A correlation was found between the detachment bubbles created by irradiation below the ablation threshold and their respective peel adhesion values, which allows us to evaluate the quality of adhesion for pressure-sensitive tapes. Thus, a method to evaluate the quality of adhesion using an excimer laser is proposed based on the findings of this work.

Keywords:

• Pressure-sensitive adhesive tape
• biaxially oriented polypropylene film
• excimer laser
• adhesion
• peel test
• ablation threshold
• polymer film directionality
• irradiated film properties.