Peel of an adhesive tape from a temperature-gradient surface

The peel force of a pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) tape is measured on a surface that varied linearly in temperature. As the tape is peeled from the surface, the adhesive is peeled from the surface at a different temperature. Since the peel force varies with temperature, the measurement allows the temperature dependence of the peel force to be determined with one peel test. By this method, the temperature of the transition from cohesive to interfacial failure can be easily identified, not only by the relative peak in the peel force, but also by the clearly visible adhesive layer that remains on the stainless steel plate during cohesive failure. Peel forces are measured at 90° and 180° peel angles and peel rates between 0.05 and 15 mm/s. The peel forces measured on a temperature-gradient surface are similar in magnitude to peel forces measured on the same surface but at constant temperature and averaged over longer peel lengths.