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By Bob Lesher on  9/12/2022

Guide to Adhesive Tapes & Automotive Electronics (Exterior)

Guide to Adhesive Tapes & Automotive Electronics (Exterior)

PSA Tapes & Exterior Automotive Electronics

All of us want safer transportation, and this extra vehicle safety usually comes at a cost: more electronics. Electronics located on the vehicle's exterior, like rearview mirror displays, backup cameras, and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), can all add weight and complexity to the vehicle.

How do the automotive and transportation OEMs attach, bond, and seal these electronic devices without adding weight, noise, or even more safety concerns?

Precision die-cut adhesive tapes.

Automotive rearview mirror exploded view showing multiple layer mirror construction

We spoke with Scott Krusinski, Automotive Product Manager for Avery Dennison Performance Tapes, to get the skinny on their new automotive adhesive tapes portfolio.

What can you expect here? How Avery Dennison adhesive tapes can benefit external automotive electronics applications and how custom die-cut parts from JBC bring it all together.

You can read the companion post here if interested in adhesive tape applications for interior automotive electronics.

Now, if you're ready to dive into adhesive tapes and exterior automotive electronics, let's jump in.

Table of Contents

  1. Adhesive Tapes for Automotive Applications: Just the Basics
  2. Adhesive Tapes for Exterior Automotive Electronics: Typical Applications
  3. Avery Dennison: Automotive Electronics Adhesive Tapes Portfolio
  4. Avery Dennison Automotive Adhesive Tapes: Product Spotlights
  5. JBC Technologies & Avery Dennison: The Converter Partner Advantage
  6. The JBC Technologies Difference

Adhesive Tapes for Automotive Applications: Just the Basics

Pressure-Sensitive Adhesive (PSA) tapes used in automotive applications must be durable, withstand high and low temperatures, and resist UV light. And often, they must be able to bond to low surface energy (LSE) materials like paint systems and polyolefin plastics.

We'll also learn more about Avery Dennison's portfolio of Automotive Electronics adhesive tapes and their history of use within the automotive industry.

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Adhesive Tapes for Exterior Automotive Electronics: Typical Applications

PSA tapes can attach sensors, cameras, and electronic components to the vehicle or even bond them. There are several typical applications for precision die-cut components made using specialty adhesive tapes, including exterior automotive electronics. Let's take a closer look at some of these applications.

Sensor Mounting & Sealing

Self-driving vehicles mean more ADAS, cameras, and sensors on vehicle exteriors. Die-cut adhesive tapes can bond these sensors to various locations and substrates. 

Double-coated foam tapes can secure ultrasonic sensors inside the bumper. Double-coated foam tapes are also used to secure cameras, lidar, and radar sensors to different vehicle parts.

Gasketing

A gasket can often be used if a permanent bond is not required for sensor components.

A foam gasket can be bonded with a pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) tape to the component for a water-tight seal. Thin bonding tapes make an excellent option for this application.

Glare Reduction

With the inclusion of cameras for ADAS, plastic surfaces in front of the cameras create a glare when the sun reflects off those surfaces.

A felt or flock tape can be applied to the plastic surface in front of the camera to absorb glare.

Heater Films for Heater Bonding and Gap Filling

PTC heaters are flexible circuits printed with conductive ink and polyester film, and they are placed around cameras and sensors to prevent ice build-up.

Because they are thin and flexible, a PSA must be used to bond them to different substrates.

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Avery Dennison: Adhesive Tapes for Automotive Electronics

How do Avery Dennison’s automotive electronics adhesive tapes help transportation OEMs to produce easy-to-assemble, lightweight, durable electronic components?

According to Krusinski, the Avery Dennison automotive electronics tapes portfolio addresses these issues and the other emerging applications born as our vehicles evolve.

The portfolio includes 12 applications, 13 adhesive technologies, 24 tape products, and nine construction styles.  It was built to provide solutions to several common challenges, including:

  • Speed of Assembly – repositionable and with an instant bond
  • Lightweighting – replace mechanical fasteners with thin profile lightweight tapes
  • Durability – seal and fill gaps for ingress protection
  • Noise Reduction – mitigate buzz, squeak, and rattle (BSR) and unwanted noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH)
  • Vision and Sensing – reduce glare, manage light, and bond PTC heaters

Avery Dennison Performance Tapes Exterior Automotive Electronics Applications

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Avery Dennison Automotive Adhesive Tapes: Product Spotlights

Avery Dennison FT0900X is a single-coated flock tape used for glare reduction with ADAS cameras. It can be placed in front of the camera lens on the plastic housing around the camera to reduce glare.

“It is a great combination of an existing automotive-specified material being used for a new application,” said Krusinski. “It is a high-performance low VOC acrylic adhesive and meets many OEM specifications. It performs well against extreme temperatures and bonds to low surface energy materials.”

Avery Dennison FM2132 is a general-purpose acrylic adhesive tape with excellent temperature resistance, durability, and bond strength with low surface energy (LSE) plastics.

Check out the complete Avery Dennison Automotive adhesive tapes portfolio, or try the Avery Dennison product selector.

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The Converter Partner Advantage

When you partner with an industry-leading materials converter like JBC Technologies, we can add value to Avery Dennison Automotive Electronics Tapes in several ways:

Our value-added solutions include:

  • Laminating different performance materials to Avery Dennison tapes
  • Creating multi-material composites with Avery Dennison tapes
  • Die-cutting custom shapes
  • Custom part presentations for assembly and automation
  • Rapid prototyping and quick turnaround sampling

Here are a few specific application advantages you'll get when you choose to work with JBC Technologies:

  1. The backup camera often needs an EPDM foam gasket to form a watertight seal. JBC can laminate an adhesive to the EPDM foam and then die-cut it into the right shape to speed up assembly.
  2. Ultrasonic sensors often have a circular perimeter design. A converter can die-cut the exact shape needed to achieve a strong bond and a clean appearance.
  3. We are experts in materials selection and can help you match the best materials for your application.

“If an OEM needs assistance selecting the right material to meet their application's temperature and humidity resistance requirements, converters can work with multiple material manufacturers to help recommend the right material.”

- Scott Krusinski, Avery Dennison.

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The JBC Technologies Difference

Since 1988, we've used our engineering expertise and vertically integrated materials converting capabilities to transform rolls of flexible materials into custom die-cut parts.

JBC Technologies provides its customers with the highest quality, most innovative materials for their custom die-cut products. We do this with the help of partners like Avery Dennison Performance Tapes and other industry-leading material manufacturers.

Contact JBC Technologies today to learn more about how our custom solutions can help you convert your design concepts into reality.

What do you think are some of the biggest challenges facing the automotive industry?

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