Application Studies / Reusable Pressure Sensitive Adhesive Putty

Reusable Pressure Sensitive Adhesive Putty

Industry:

Adhesives

Attributes measured:

adhesiveness

peak tack

work of adhesion

distance to separation

initial stiffness

Background

Many types of tapes, glues, and pushpins are commonly used to attach posters and decorations to walls. However these methods can damage the mounted objects, the walls and painted finishes. Pressure sensitive putty-like products are also known as adhesive tack or sticky tack. The products are advertised as a substitute for hanging posters and decorations using a non-destructive method. Adhesive tack is a putty-type material that is torn into small pieces that can be kneaded into almost any shape and is used to hold corners of posters, photographs or other objects to walls. Manufacturers claim that sticky tack is repositionable, reusable, versatile, clean, and safe. This application study compares the tack, work of adhesion and stringiness of two different brands of sticky tack: Blu Tack Adhesive Tack and Sellotac Sticky Tack. The brass face of the TA-303 Indexable Tack Fixture was used with the TA.XTPlus Texture Analyzer to hold the adhesive tack in place during testing.