Adhesive Backed Gasket

For decades Stockwell has been applying pressure sensitive adhesive backings onto gasketing materials. Adhesive backed gaskets are very appealing to our customers for several reasons. More often engineers and designers are specifying adhesive backings for gaskets. A peel and stick gasket (or peel and stick vibration pad) offers some nice features that plain or non-adhesive backed gaskets don’t have, below is a list of a few. (Link: Stockwell adhesive offerings)

Ease of installation – a peel and stick gasket allows operators and assembly technicians to install a gasket or pad quickly and easily. The time saved by having an adhesive backing justifies the additional cost.

Gasket Positioning – when an adhesive backed gasket is installed and “stuck” in place it stays in place when the lid or mating surfaces are compressed. Without being fixed in place the motion of the mating faces could move or twist the gasket cause a leakage.

Kiss-cutting - adhesive backed gaskets are able to be kiss-cut (see blog posting Oct. 12, 2007). Manufacturing engineers like this because parts are presented to the operators on neat roll and parts are removed from the liner versus individual parts requiring tedious liner removal

Bolt hole position – a supported adhesive backing or double coated adhesive (see blog posting July 30, 2007) gives a gasket that has a series of bolt holes dimensional stability. Essentially the thin P.E.T. layer does not let the gasket stretch in the X and Y dimensions. Without this support layer the gasket may stretch during installation and the holes will not line up.

Stockwell offers a wide range of adhesive backed gaskets. Adhesive backings are applied to the vast majority of materials. These include Poron urethane foam, silicone foam, silicone sponge, solid silicone, Neoprene sponge, electrically conductive gasket materials, thermal pads to name a few. Adhesives such as 3M’s Low Surface Energy (LSE) adhesives, transfer adhesives, double coated (or supported adhesives), thermally conductive adhesives and electrically conductive adhesives are available.

Stockwell is not limited to applying silicone adhesive to silicone rubber. With several proprietary processes, Stockwell is capable of bonding a wide range of quality adhesives including acrylics and silicones. (Stockwell adhesive offerings)

For more information regarding adhesive backed gaskets, grades of adhesive, peel and stick or adhesive offerings, please contact us at service@stockwell.com or 215-335-3005.

Pressure Sensitive Adhesive. Supported Construction

Supported adhesives, also called double coated tapes, get their name from their construction. A thin plastic like layer (typically P.E.T.) is coated on both sides with a thin layers of adhesive. The most common family of Pressure Sensitive Adhesives are acrylic based. Adhesive manufacturers such as 3M, Adchem, and St. Gobain offer many varieties of adhesives with different bond strengths, temperature ranges, and mechanical properties. The thin support layer (or carrier layer) of supported (or double coated) adhesives offers dimensional stability when added to an elastomeric material.

These pressure sensitive adhesives (PSA) are typically self wound. When unrolled one side of the adhesive is exposed. In most cases Stockwell applies the exposed adhesive to the gasket or pad material, the release liner remains in tack until the end user is ready to peel and stick. This adhesive backing is very helpful for the end user during assembly. In some cases we will apply a second liner to the exposed face and die cut the adhesive to a specific geometry.

For more information on Pressure Sensitive Adhesive, please follow the link to our website http://stockwell.com/pages/materials_adhesives.php or contact us at service@stockwell.com.