Adhesive Investigation

The Intertek MSG Microscopy Team

The Microscopy Team has many years’ experience of examining adhesives for a wide range of applications ranging from the packaging to the electronics industries.

For example:

• categorization of failure modes, e.g., adhesive, cohesive.
• examination of interfaces, e.g. penetration into wood.
• assessment of mixing, e.g. distribution of conductive particles in electronic adhesives.
• visualisation of failure mode, e.g. video of peel testing.

Specific examples:

• The highly sensitive nature of commercial adhesive development prevents us from revealing specific details of our key clients’ projects.

• The development of good conductivity and bond strength of adhesives used in the electronics industry.
• An understanding of wood- glue action at the adhesive/wood interface.
• Root-cause of inconsistent peel in micro-wavable food container films.
• Development of low-temperature adhesive processing for the cardboard packaging industry.

Successes

• Electronics Industry conductive adhesive:
  • Identified poor mixing as the cause of inconsistent conductivity and weak interface with copper substrate
• Wood Glue:
  • Showed how adhesion at the interface can be improved by understanding how the adhesive penetrates into the cellular structure.
• Micro-wavable food trays:
  • Advised on the development of easy-peel tray lids by studying the interaction between film-lid and containe
• Cardboard packaging:
  • Helped the customer to reduce the temperature of processing, resulting in significant energy savings