Labels provide information about objects and are attached using adhesives. There are different types of adhesives for different purposes - permanent adhesives stick strongly but cannot be removed, while peelable adhesives allow removal but may leave residue. Adhesives must bond to surfaces and develop strength; the right adhesive depends on factors like temperature and material. Common adhesive types include permanent, peelable, ultra-peel, freezer, and marine varieties.

1. Labels and Adhesives

2. Adhesives & Labels
• A small piece of paper, fabric, plastic, or similar material attached to an object and giving
information about it.
• An adhesive is a substance that sticks to the surface of an object such that two surfaces become
bonded. An adhesive must wet the surfaces, adhere to the surfaces, develop strength after it has
been applied in order to remain stable.

3. The right adhesive for your labels
• Permanent adhesives are the most common and are not designed to be removed
once initial contact is made. They work on the majority of surfaces but can have
difficulty boding to some surfaces such as damp plastics. They are not re-
positionable and will leave a residue on casual removal from most surfaces. They
are very common and the default adhesive used by the majority of
applications. Choose this adhesive if you have no reason not to as it is cost effective
and probably does what you want.
• Peelable adhesives are designed to allow the label to be removed, but may leave a
residue on the application surface. The long the label is on the surface, the harder it
is to remove and the more likely it is to leave a residue.

4. The right adhesive for your labels
• Ultra-peel adhesives are the weakest and are useful for marking up high value goods where
the label must be very easily removed for example book covers, glass and fine
chinaware. The adhesion strength is low though and if used incorrectly they will fall off.
• Freezer adhesives are useful for products that are stored at cold temperatures as
conventional permanent adhesives become ineffective below -10 degrees C, and freezers
often drop to below -30 degrees C
• Marine adhesives can withstand protracted submersion under water and are principally used
for chemical labelling
• Security adhesives have various properties that indicate tampering of the label. We have a
special security label product called Label lock such tamper evident security label
applications.

5. Properties
• cohesive strength
• Flexibility
• High elastic modulus to resist stress at the bond line
• Viscosity how thick the adhesive is and the magnitude of internal friction
• Softening Point to determine when an adhesive will begin to flow

6. Major types of adhesives for labels
There are thousands of adhesives they are divided into three major types
• Thermoplastic
• Thermosetting
• Rubber-resin blends

7. Thermoplastic
Adhesives
• Thermoplastic adhesives are especially useful because they can be used in a
dry form and are already fully polymerized as received. The bonding process
basically involves softening or melting the polymer while in contact with the
adherents.

8. Thermosetting
adhesives
• Thermosetting adhesives are essentially infusible, insoluble and show good
flow resistance. They are used for heavy loads and severe conditions such as
heat, cold, radiation.

9. Rubber-resin
adhesives
• They have relatively low shear strength and suffer from cold flow and are
therefore used for unstressed joints. They are useful for flexible bonds with
plastics and rubbers

10. Summary
Adhesives are used for many different things including making many different
labels. Adhesives are used to join materials by gluing. Different types of
adhesives are used for different materials and different conditions because the
most suitable adhesive will be needed to join the material better. For more
information visit: http://www.labelservice.co.uk/