As products for industrial, medical, and personal use continue to become more sophisticated, there is a growing need for enhanced research, testing, and storage techniques to support these evolutionary and revolutionary products. Recognizing this trend, a well-known global provider of specialty appliances recently fine-tuned its production process to meet the changing needs of its marketplace.

Among its products, the U.S.-based manufacturer produces a specialty freezer designed for research and storage applications. As part of the normal freezer production process, production workers were attaching a urethane foam strip lined with an adhesive tape to the fiberglass-reinforced plastic (FRP) door of the freezer unit; the strip is intended to act as a gasket seal. Throughout the manufacturing and testing processes, assemblers noticed that the adhesive on the foam strip was not securely bonding to the FRP. As an attempt to reinforce the bond, toxic glue was applied to the foam strip, which ultimately released odors and fumes throughout the manufacturing area—and into the environment.

After learning about the challenge, a tesa representative, working with global converter Marian Inc., recommended a tesa® double-sided foam tape (tesa® 62932) to be adhered to the foam strip to ultimately provide the critical gasket seal between door and freezer. tesa 62932 is a double-sided PE-foam tape for constructive mounting applications. It consists of a conformable PE-foam backing and a tackified acrylic adhesive (see Table 1). Product benefits include:

• Thin foam backing for a small design gap

• Versatile adhesive for high immediate adhesion on numerous substrates

• High ultimate adhesion level for secure bonding performance

• UV, water and aging resistant

• High immediate bonding strength, even at low bonding pressure

• Very good cold shock absorbtion

With a series of successful tests, tesa 62932 is now the manufacturer’s adhesive tape of choice for this application. In fact, the manufacturer is now using the product to replace metal rivets to secure outer unit panels when foam insulation is blown into the unit.

 For more information, visit www.tesatape.com. Marian’s website is located at www.marianinc.com.