Join Matt Tempelis as he discusses the different VHB™ tape families and what their specialties and uses are.
Transcript:
Hello and welcome to another episode of Tale of the Tape. I'm Matt Tempelis, President of Engineered Materials and your Minister of Tape. We've discussed VHB™ tapes in these episodes. We've talked about why you would use VHB™ tapes, where you use them, how they benefit you for your specific applications. Now we're going to try to help you choose the right VHB™ tape family for your application. VHB™ over the last many decades has proliferated into hundreds of products, a variety of different thicknesses, and a ton of different tape families. So it can be daunting to find the right tape family for your application. What we're going to do is we're going to simplify this down to the 90-10 rule. We're going to tell you a couple of different tape families that you want to start with. And then if you have specialty applications, you can then look at those for those specialty applications. We'll dig into those details right now. The 4941 VHB™ tape family. If you choose this family, it's going to work for 75-80% of the applications that you're going to see. It has a great bonding adhesive system. It has a conformable yet very durable core that makes it perfect for the widest array of applications. The adhesive system bonds well to metals and many plastics.
It has a durable but very conformable core that allows the adhesive system to wet out and still resist dynamic loads, and it's probably the best combination of all the adhesion, conformability and durability factors that has ever been made in a VHB™ tape, which means it fits the widest array of applications. Areas to watch out for if you have lower surface energy plastics or paints, it may not bond as well. Really, what you want in any of these bonds as you want. Failure to only occur by ripping out that foam core. You don't want it adhesive failure. So in those cases you may want to use adhesion primer or promoter. Common applications are going to be like trailer panels, you know, going down that road, you get all sorts of vibrations and stresses on those trailers. VHB™ 4941 family does a fabulous job of withstanding that type of stress. Window mutton bars are very commonly used with 4941 family, and then architectural panels are also an area where 4941 has been used for decades. This is a product family that you will want to start with when choosing a VHB™ tape. The 5952 VHB™ tape family is the next most used and most ubiquitous product in the VHB™ family line, and that is because of its great adhesion to a variety of substrates.
It bonds very well to powder coated paints. Bonds very well to many plastics, and it has a highly conformable core that allows the adhesive system and the tape to wet out many different surfaces. Where might you be concerned about using this tape when you're talking about repeat dynamic loads, for example, truck trailer bonding, this may not be the right product for those types of applications. Better for more static, slower dynamic loads like oven door assemblies, outdoor signage assemblies, as well as mobile electronic devices. Then we talk about the remaining 10% of your applications. There's a variety of specialty VHB™ tapes. However, there are three that I think really kind of capture most of the needs. Then of course, there's the 1% of products that we can give us a call we'll help you out with. Number one is the LSE VHB™ tape family, which is just come out within the last several years. It's made for bonding low surface energy plastics. It's got a high tack adhesive that's bonded to a highly, highly conformable core. Means that the core strength is not going to be as strong as the 5952 series, certainly not the 4941 series, but without Surface Primer, you can bond to low surface energy plastics and get a great VHB™ style bond.
The GPH VHB™ family is made for very high temperature applications like bonding metals prior to the powder coated paint oven process that GPH family can handle. That plus, high temperatures in use in application again, might be sort of a niche, but a great opportunity with that product line. And it is similar to 4941 in terms of performance. So a very good product there. And then there's the LVO VHB™ family, which is very new and that is similar to the 5952 series products. But it is low odor, low VOC and indirect food safe. So if you want to use bond this inside a refrigerator, this is the product for you, if you want to use it inside an automobile, this is also the product for you. So three great specialty tapes that handle the rest of the 10% of applications. We've discussed how to choose the right VHB™ tape family for your application, go to products as well as some of the specialty items. If you'd like to learn more about VHB™ tapes applications. How they can be die-cut into specific parts for your application, please give us a call. We'll see you next time on Tale of the Tape.
