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US 6,001,471 AGranted
Removable adhesive tape with controlled sequential release
Assignee3M Innovative Properties Company
InventorsJames L. Bries, Michael D. Hamerski
Life of this patent
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Assignee3M Innovative Properties Company
InventorsJames L. Bries, Michael D. Hamerski
Estimating the term…
Double-sided stretchable adhesive tapes are described for use in conventional applications, particularly including the mounting or joining of an object to another surface. An improvement lies within the ability to control the timing of the debonding of both surfaces so that one adhesive surface releases before the other. The earlier release can be either on the object side or the surface side, depending on the desired effect. The present invention is applicable to all stretchable tape constructions including the use of plastic backing materials and/or elastic backing materials and allows such an object to be removed without risking substantial snap-back of the adhesive tape or catapulting of the object. The aforementioned advantages can be achieved by a double-sided adhesive tape having a stretchable backing layer, plastic or elastic, and having a lower-adhesion or non-adhesive portion of one adhesive surface, so that a corresponding greater adhesion adhesive portion of the other side remains more aggressively adhered to a surface during stretch removal while the portion of the one adhesive surface is less aggressively adhered or completely released from its surface. A non-adhesive portion may be adhesive-free, or may be an adhesive layer portion which is rendered non-adhesive. A lower-adhesion portion may comprise a low adhesion material, i.e., a weaker adhesive, or may be rendered lower in adhesion by a treatment or coating.
A tape adapted for attaching first and second structures to each other, said tape having first and second opposite ends spaced in a first direction, opposite first and second primary outer surfaces extending between said ends, a manually engageable tab portion adjacent said first end, and an attachment portion between said manually engageable portion and said second end comprising a layer of aggressive pressure sensitive adhesive providing an adhesively aggressive portion of each of said outer surfaces, each adhesively aggressive portion having a primary end adjacent the first end of said tape, a secondary end adjacent the second end of said tape and being adapted to be firmly adhered to a different one of said structures between said primary and secondary ends, said attachment portion being stretchable so that said attachment portion when between and adhered to said structures can be progressively stretched along its length by the manual application of force to said manually engageable portion to cause separation of said adhesively aggressive surface portions from said structures progressively from said primary ends towards said secondary ends, said secondary ends of said adhesively aggressive surface portions being spaced from each other in said first direction to cause complete separation of one of said adhesively aggressive surface portions from one of the structures substantially prior to separation of the other of said adhesively aggressive surface portions from the other of the structures.
An assembly comprising a tape attaching first and second structures to each other, said tape having first and second opposite ends spaced in a first direction, opposite first and second primary outer surfaces extending between said ends, a manually engageable portion adjacent said first end, and an attachment portion between said manually engageable portion and said second end comprising a layer of aggressive pressure sensitive adhesive providing an adhesively aggressive portion of each of said outer surfaces, each adhesively aggressive portion having a primary end adjacent the first end of said tape, a secondary end adjacent the second end of said tape and being firmly adhered to a different one of said structures between said primary and secondary ends, said attachment portion being stretchable so that said attachment portion between and adhered to said structures can be progressively stretched along its length by the manual application of force to said manually engageable portion to cause separation of said adhesively aggressive surface portions from said structures progressively from said primary ends towards said secondary ends, said secondary ends of said adhesively aggressive surface portions being spaced from each other in said first direction to cause complete separation of one of said adhesively aggressive surface portions from one of the structures substantially prior to separation of the other of said adhesively aggressive surface portions from the other of the structures.
An assembly comprising a tape attaching first and second structures to each other, said first structure having a rear surface including a rear surface portion adapted to be adhered to extending to an edge, said tape having first and second opposite ends spaced in a first direction, opposite first and second primary outer surfaces extending between said ends, a manually engageable tab portion adjacent said first end, and an attachment portion between said manually engageable portion and said second end comprising a layer of aggressive pressure sensitive adhesive providing an adhesively aggressive portion of each of said outer surfaces, each adhesively aggressive portion having a primary end adjacent the first end of said tape, a secondary end adjacent the second end of said tape and being firmly adhered to a different one of said structures with the adhesively aggressive portion adhered to said first structure being adhered to said rear surface with said edge spaced in said first direction from the primary end of the adhesively aggressive portion adhered to said second structure and with the adhesively aggressive portion adhered to said second structure at said secondary end, said attachment portion being stretchable so that said attachment portion between and adhered to said structures can be progressively stretched along its length by the manual application of force to said manually engageable tab portion to cause separation of said adhesively aggressive surface portions from said structures progressively from said primary ends towards said secondary ends, with the spacing between the edge and the secondary end of said adhesively aggressive surface portion adhered to said second structure causing separation of the adhesively aggressive surface portion from the first structure substantially prior to separation of the other of said adhesively aggressive surface portions from the second structure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.