PULL-OFF FORCES FOR ADHESIVE TAPES

An analysis is given of the force F required to pull an adhesive tape of unit width away from a rigid substrate in terms of the strength G//a of adhesion, the tensile modulus E of the tape, and its thickness t. Measurements are reported for several commercial adhesive tapes and compared with the predictions of the theory. Excellent agreement is obtained, suggesting that the theory is basically correct. Differences observed in G//a from pull-off and from 90 degree peeling experiments are tentatively attributed to additional energy losses in the latter case due to the severe bending deformations imposed on the tape as it is peeled away.