School closings and stay-at-home orders due to COVID-19 have forced many parents around the world to become true activities directors for their households—whether they like it or not. This can be stressful for everyone involved, but I’ve been amazed at some of the ambitious projects I’ve seen families undertake over the past few months using simple household items.

Some of your children might have used tapes, glues, or other adhesive products for school- or hobby-related activities, while others might have explored projects that are slightly less productive (such as those darlings on our front cover this month). We’d love to see some of the adhesive-related projects (productive or otherwise) that your kids have undertaken. Please post photo(s) and project detail(s) on Facebook and Twitter using #ASIstickysituation, so we can be sure to see them and share!

Beyond household projects and occasional hijinks, pressure-sensitive tape finds use in myriad industrial applications. Matching the specific adhesive chemistry and tape construction to a particular application helps ensure success, according to 3M’s Anthony Cotter. “While a couple of types of tape can cover most general household needs, production on an industrial scale requires tapes with specific properties so that each assembly performs predictably and is the same as all the others,” Cotter writes. Learn more in “What Are Pressure-Sensitive Adhesives and Tapes?” in this issue.

Electronics applications can pose particularly tricky challenges, especially since tapes are asked to provide various functionalities and designs—and their respective requirements are constantly changing. “As a device changes shape or gets smaller, the tape producers typically meet and consult with the OEMs’ design teams to help them anticipate the size and shape of a new device’s dimensions and to see if the tape they provided for a previous device iteration will work,” writes Tom Epple of Avery Dennison.

Any guesses on the typical response? Turn to “Pressure-Sensitive Tape Solutions for Electronics” for details.