Effects of peel angle on peel force of adhesive tape from soft adherend.

In the case of the peeling of adhesive tapes from soft adherends, the contributions of the compressive force at the adhered portion as well as the larger deformation of adherend have essential roles in determining the peeling properties. In this paper, the peel force of an adhesive tape from a soft adherend has been measured to understand the peeling mechanism, which is greatly affected by the peel angle. A commercially available pressure-sensitive adhesive was used as the tape, and a cross-linked polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was used as the soft adherend. The purpose of this study is to clarify the effects of the peel angle on the peel behavior of this system at room temperature under different material specifications and different experimental conditions. The factors that affect the peel force of the PDMS adherend included the degree of cross-linking in PDMS, the thickness of PDMS, peel angle, and peel velocity. Two characteristic peel patterns were observed, which depended on the material specifications and different experimental conditions. The peel mechanism was discussed in terms of the deformation of the adherend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]