Whenever you seal a box with packaging tape, leave yourself a "sticky" note, or peel an address label and apply it to an envelope, you realize one of the many advantages of pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs). Yet these applications represent only a sampling of the current - and future - applications for PSAs. PSAs are integral to almost every "peel-and-stick" adhesive application - including masking tape, packaging tape, note pads and hundreds of different labels.
Traditionally, PSA formulations have been solventborne and based upon modified rubber chemistry. Due to today's stricter environmental-compliance regulations, these solventborne PSAs are being challenged by low-VOC, fast-curing systems such as ultraviolet (UV) and electron beam (EB).
For more than 10 years, chemists have researched UV/EB-cure PSAs. Research has shown the types of oligomer and monomer structures that will produce an acceptable UV/EB-curable PSA[1-6].