Rheology and adherence of pressure-sensitive adhesives

We have studied the relationship between rheological and peeling properties for hot-melt pressure-sensitive adhesives based on homopolymers or copolymers blended with tackifying resins. In this article, we particularly try to demonstrate that it is possible to define a quantitative link between rheology and adherence when the model formulations are deposited on substrates with strong (thermodynamic) adhesion. We describe the experimental results obtained on these model formulations and discuss the quantitative relationships obtained. In the case of "adhesion modulation" (derived from different treatments of the substrates), we show that the relationships become much more complicated, even with the same model adhesives. At the end, we discuss on the competition between adhesion and dissipation in the case of poor adhesion.