red christmas tree sticker
Over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, I was with my uncle. We were going through some old stuff, between my father’s old report cards, and some pictures.
A Old Sticker, over 25 years old
Before I was born, more than 28 years ago as of this writing, we used to die-cut Christmas trees and give them away. They were made of red felt, and an adhesive tape backing. As my uncle, and I were going through this old stuff, we found some of these red felt Christmas trees. I noticed the old liner on the back, and decided to give it a peel to see how tacky it was. (I ruined one of the stickers trying to get the liner off), but upon the second try, I was able to get the liner off very carefully, and stuck it on my jacket. I attached the picture here in the photo.
What does this say about Adhesive Tapes Shelf Life?
The parable above doesn’t say anything about any one particular type of adhesive tape. However, it does tell us that some adhesive shelf lives are not what you think they may be. The shelf life is not always related to the adhesive its shelf. Many times the shelf life of a tacky, or adhesive product is related to the following:
- Ability for the liner to separate overtime. Sometimes the liner becomes impossible to remove since the liner eventually marries to the adhesive.
- The adhesive can eventually ooze out of the roll the adhesive comes in, bonding to the sides and making it impossible to convert, and cut into finished product.
With that said, there are also cases where I have seen adhesive dry out completely. In cases of silicone adhesive tapes products, I’ve seen the adhesive become useless after a year.
More Information/Die Cutting/Lamination
NEDC die-cuts, and waterjet-cuts adhesive backed product for its customers. I added a note on the bottom from 3M on their adhesive shelf lifes. Since NEDC is an authroized 3M converter, we usually distribute this to customers that ask about shelf life. For more information on adhesive tapes, or you feel you have an application that could utilize one, please contact sales@nedc.com.