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

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

There are two most important forms of adhesives: sturdy ones which might be exhausting to take away, resembling duct tape, and people that may be simply peeled off, resembling sticky notes. What’s lacking is an adhesive that mixes the properties of the 2 – one that’s sturdy however simply eliminated when wanted, says Michael Bartlett at Virginia Tech.

Bartlett and his colleagues have provide you with an answer primarily based on kirigami. “Our inspiration was to make use of the geometry, or the chopping of the tape, to manage its properties with out having to revamp the chemistry,” he says.

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

Nonetheless, the crew discovered that it was a lot tougher to take away the tape in case you peel in the other way. As a substitute of 1 easy movement, each time you encounter a reduce within the tape you want to flip round and return on your self to separate it from the floor. This issue provides it its excessive energy: the researchers discovered that this easy modification may improve the adhesion of the tape by an element of 60. “Meaning we will basically take a bit of fabric like a Put up-it notice and make it as sturdy as duct tape,” says Bartlett.

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

Sooner or later, 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’s elegant about [this] work is the shockingly easy answer,” says Jamie Paik on the Swiss Federal Institute of Know-how in Lausanne. “In contrast to earlier approaches, this methodology doesn’t require any particular mixture of supplies, manufacturing processes or moulds.”