Clever design makes sticky tape that’s strong but easily removed

A approach to modify sticky tape impressed by kirigami, the Japanese artwork of paper chopping, might make it 60 occasions stronger, whereas remaining simple to peel off.

There are two primary kinds of adhesives: robust ones which are onerous to take away, akin to duct tape, and people that may be simply peeled off, akin to sticky notes. What is lacking is an adhesive that mixes the properties of the 2 – one that’s strong however simply eliminated when wanted, says Michael Bartlett at Virginia Tech.

Bartlett and his colleagues have give you an answer primarily based on kirigami. “Our inspiration was to use the geometry, or the cutting of the tape, to control its properties without having to redesign the chemistry,” he says.

To create the tape, the group laser-cut three sides of a rectangle in a repeated sample in a strip of sticky tape, to create flaps (see photograph). If you peel it off a floor so that you encounter the uncut aspect of the rectangle first, it’s simple to separate.

However, the group discovered that it was a lot tougher to take away the tape in the event you peel in the wrong way. Instead of 1 easy movement, each time you encounter a minimize within the tape you want to flip round and return on your self to separate it from the floor. This problem provides it its excessive energy: the researchers discovered that this straightforward modification might improve the adhesion of the tape by an element of 60. “That means we can essentially take a piece of material like a Post-it note and make it as strong as duct tape,” says Bartlett.

The tape could possibly be helpful in conditions the place you want a excessive adhesion drive in a particular path, akin to hanging a photograph body. What’s extra, the group discovered that it will probably follow a variety of supplies, together with metal, glass, plastic and Teflon, and even works underwater.

In the longer term, Bartlett says that these modified tapes could possibly be used within the manufacture of robots and electronics that will profit from trouble-free disassembly.

“What is elegant about [this] work is the shockingly simple solution,” says Jamie Paik on the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. “Unlike previous approaches, this method does not require any special combination of materials, manufacturing processes or moulds.”