Pressure-sensitive Adhesives

Adhesives have become an integral part of our day-to-day lives.

Everything is either monolithic or bound to the others by adhesives.

Broadly divided into two classes, structural and pressure-sensitive, it provides users various choices when it comes to forming a permanent bond. Unlike structural type achieving that through typical drying processes such as solvent evaporating, UV curing, chemical reaction, or cooling, pressure-sensitive one simply gets the job done by the application of light pressure to marry the adhesive with the adherend.

**Figure 1. Basic approach to achieving adhesive function through pressure**

How pressure-sensitive adhesives works?

**Figure 2. Removable PSAs help prevent residue left on the adherend**

Pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSAs) are designed with a core balance between viscous and elastic properties. While the viscosity makes way for the adhesive to flow and wet the adherend, the elasticity ensures it is hard enough to resist flow when pressure is applied to the bond.

PSAs in their first days were usually permanent. Nowadays when actual needs arise and removability gets considered, as the bond should be temporary and able to detached without leaving residue on the adherend after a certain requiring time, say a whole year or several so, removable types gradually become popular for PSAs beside permanent ones.

Let’s take a deep dive into how Toyochem Specialty Chemical (TSC), a member of Toyo Ink Group, has nearly touched all the applications that are possible with PSAs at the time being.

Applications