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Taking sustainable design to the next level with a smart adhesive that offers “Debonding on Demand”

Technologies

With the development of "Debonding on Demand" solutions, tesa is on the way to bringing a new generation of intelligent and innovative adhesive tapes to the market. These smart and innovative tapes will open up completely new dimensions in product designs with the power to cut waste, boost recycling, enable product repairs and promote a circular economy across industries.

Our tesa® tapes can last forever, but with the development of "debonding on demand" solutions, in the future they should also be able to be removed at any time. With tesa "Bond and Detach", we have been enabling the residue-free removal of adhesive tapes using mechanically triggered separation for years. The next goal has already been defined: Adhesive tapes are also to be made removable using other mechanisms in the future. This technological breakthrough in the field of structural bonding has the potential to usher in a new dimension of fastening and thus a new era in bonding technology.

The ambitious team of experts at tesa is currently working flat out on the development of these new, innovative adhesive technologies. “Debonding on Demand” creates new possibilities for many industries in terms of product design, reworking during manufacturing, repairs during the use phase, and recycling at the end of the product's life cycle. tesa is on its way to entering a new world of possibilities in the field of bonding and debonding.

"Debonding on demand" stands for intelligent adhesive tapes that can be bonded quickly and permanently yet can be completely removed if required and, in some cases, can even be reattached - while retaining their reliable adhesive strength. As a result, “Debonding on Demand” solutions are highly attractive for companies that want to save resources and position themselves as sustainability pioneers in their industry while getting ahead of competitors and regulatory changes.

Saving resources and promoting circularity

"Debonding on demand" technologies hold great potential for a wide range of applications - from cell phones and car displays to batteries for Electric Vehicles (EV) and beyond. Making it possible to rework parts during production helps save resources and cut waste because errors can be corrected instead of scrapping material. Repairing products extends their life cycle and eliminates the need to manufacture replacements. And enabling recycling of a broader range of products supports the transition to a circular economy, where materials stay in the economic cycle for longer and waste becomes a thing of the past.

tesa’s Bond & Detach® solutions

are used in more than 1.8 billion smartphones worldwide.

We are cooperating with OEMs to develop tapes with debonding mechanism, and we are at an advanced stage of product development. tesa has developed the famous tape tesa® Bond & Detach in the last decade which enables mechanical release with residue-free removability.

The aim is to also make structural adhesive tapes intelligently removable using various mechanisms such as temperature, electricity, laser and electromagnetic induction. We have great ambitions in the area of permanent bonding and are working on making non-destructive disassembly possible for the first time in the future. 

Early engagement with the customer is key to ensuring that the debonding mechanism can be incorporated into the substrate, material, and overall design.

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and more patents for "Debonding on Demand" adhesive tapes have scientific experts at tesa already filed.

The mechanisms for our Debonding on Demand tapes:

01Debonding on Demand – Electrical release

Low-voltage electricity can debond the tape within just a few seconds without residue on the substrate.

02Debonding on Demand – Laser debonding

In just a few seconds, light from a Near Infrared (NIR) laser reacts with a special layer in the tape, causing it to debond. 

03Debonding on Demand – Debondable adhesion promoter

The heat-debondable adhesion promoter can be triggered at elevated temperature (e.g. 130°C) to debond the tape from the substrate.

04Debonding on Demand – Induction debonding

Just like modern kitchen stoves, electromagnetic fields are used to generate heat. A special backing in the tape responds to the contactless induction, causing separation of the bond.

05Debonding on Demand – Solvent removable tapes

A small amount of solvent is applied to the bonded surface, which triggers the tape to debond.

06Debonding on Demand – Stretch & release tapes

Developed from the famous tesa® Powerstrips, these tapes  tesa® Bond & Detach feature a tab that users simply pull to remove the tape.

Supporting big changes for electronics

There is already great demand for "Debonding on Demand" solutions in the electronics industry. The "Bond & Detach" technology from tesa with the mechanical separation of adhesive tapes is already in widespread use. Changing regulations in the European Union are also driving popularity for smart “Debonding on Demand” technologies in this fast-moving market. The legislation aims to give consumers the right to repair products by themselves, for example, without special knowledge or tools. That’s a big challenge for device manufacturers. They urgently need solutions that enable them to design next-generation devices that meet this new set of legislative requirements.

An average smartphone already contains approximately 70 adhesive tapes from tesa, including technologies that secure the screen, battery and cameras. Equipping adhesive tapes with "debonding on demand" functions should give consumers the freedom in future to extend the service life of their device by repairing or replacing parts. In this way, devices will stay usable for longer and the volume of electronic waste will decrease. In addition, our tapes make it possible to rework the tapes and cut scrap during manufacturing, and to carefully dismantle devices at the end of the lifecycle so components and valuable materials can be harvested for recycling.

tesa-electronics-smartphone-explosion-001b-illustration-Screen

Enabling innovation for the automotive sector

Interest in "Debonding on Demand" solutions, which are not yet established in this sector, is also growing in the automotive industry. The road ahead still has plenty of twists and turns. The Council of the EU recently aligned new regulations to strengthen sustainability rules for batteries and waste batteries from production to reuse and recycling.

The tesa development team is working on promising areas of application, such as the use of "Debonding on Demand" solutions for dashboards. As electric cars gain popularity, there are additional opportunities to use “Debonding on Demand” technologies in automotive applications such as battery mounting, cell mounting and battery box sealing. Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) also offer possibilities to support repair and recyclability in the automotive industry by enabling easier access to cameras, radar modules, electronic control units and other components within modern vehicles.

Opening up opportunities across industries

At first glance, to make the ever-lasting bonding tape debondable without compromising performance sounds like a contradiction and mission impossible. Therefore, smart “Debonding on Demand” technology attracts huge interests for the potential to enable contributions to sustainability for the circular economy across industries. Looking to the future, the product developers at tesa aim to integrate debonding mechanisms into more than 7,000 products. Chemists, engineers, and product developers from tesa are engaging with customers to develop the optimal solutions for future designs. This growing trend for smart “Debonding on Demand” solutions is the latest step in tesa’s proud history of improving products and lives with innovative and sustainable adhesives for more than 125 years. And these bonding, debonding and re-bonding solutions are already gaining popularity with customers across markets worldwide.

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