Custom Structural Bonding & Assembly Tapes for EV Battery Packs

They are two different ways a bond is loaded, and a bond can be strong in one and weak in the other. Lap shear is an in-plane load that tries to slide the two bonded surfaces past each other; it is spread over the whole bond area, so a lap-shear bond is usually strong, and the joint capacity scales with bond area at a given adhesive strength (characterized by ASTM D1002 for metal and ASTM D3163 for rigid plastic).

Peel is a load that lifts the bond from one edge, concentrating all the stress at a thin peel front, which is why peel strength (ASTM D3330 for tape, ASTM D903 for adhesive bonds) is usually much lower than shear strength. This matters because a joint designed for shear can fail in peel if the geometry lets a corner lift.

Good bond design keeps the load in shear, adds bond area, and avoids peel and cleavage at the edges. Send the load direction and the geometry so the joint can be evaluated in the mode it actually sees.

Often yes, and that is a primary use of acrylic foam tape, but it is a design decision confirmed by test, not a default. A viscoelastic acrylic foam tape bonds over an area rather than at discrete points, so it spreads load, fills gaps, takes up tolerance and damps vibration, which can make a continuous tape bond stronger and more durable than a row of fasteners for the right joint.

The trade is that a bonded joint depends on the substrate, the surface preparation, the bond area, the load mode and the environment, and it cannot be torqued and checked like a bolt. So a structural bond replacing fasteners is sized for the load with adequate bond area, kept in shear and out of peel, validated on the actual substrates with the actual surface prep, and confirmed against the data sheet and a lap-shear and peel test.

Send the joint, the load and the substrates and engineering will work it with you.

With a low-surface-energy adhesive system, because a standard acrylic adhesive cannot wet a low-surface-energy surface and will not hold. Polypropylene, polyethylene, TPO and some powder coats have a surface energy too low for ordinary adhesives to spread and grip, so the bond fails even when the adhesive is strong on metal. A low-surface-energy adhesive is formulated to wet and adhere to these surfaces, often without a primer, which makes it the right family for a bracket, clip or cover made of these plastics.

Surface cleanliness still matters, and some surfaces benefit from a primer or a surface treatment, so call out both substrates, any coating and the prep you can do. H-O converts low-surface-energy adhesive as a transfer or double-coated tape; confirm the grade and the bond on the actual substrate against the data sheet and a peel and lap-shear test.

Use a foam tape when the joint needs gap fill, tolerance take-up, stress relief or vibration damping, and a transfer tape when you need a high-strength bond on a thin, flat bondline with no foam core. An acrylic foam tape has a thick viscoelastic core that conforms to uneven surfaces, fills a gap, spreads stress across the bond and damps vibration, which is why it leads for structural bracket bonds and attachments where the surfaces are not perfectly flat or the joint sees dynamic load.

A transfer tape is an unsupported adhesive film that gives high shear holding on a thin bondline where the surfaces are flat and you do not want the thickness of a foam core, which suits laminating, thin attachments and serviceable interfaces. Many designs use both in different places. Send the bondline, the gap and the load and engineering will point at the right family and confirm it against the data sheet.

By choosing a tape or adhesive with a controlled removal behavior and designing in a service feature so the bond can be removed cleanly without damaging the parts. A serviceable interface trades some ultimate strength for the ability to come apart for repair, module replacement or end-of-life recycling, so the right family is one with a defined peel and stripping behavior (characterized by ASTM D3330 and ASTM D903) rather than a maximum-strength permanent bond.

Service features help: a pull-tab or finger lift gives a place to start the peel, and stretch-release formats release along the bondline when pulled. H-O these service features into the part. Describe the holding requirement and the rework requirement, and engineering will balance the two and confirm the removal behavior against the data sheet, so the bond is reliable in service yet serviceable when needed.

Because the load a bonded joint carries is roughly the adhesive shear strength multiplied by the bond area, so doubling the area does about as much for the joint as a stronger adhesive would, sometimes more. At a given adhesive strength the joint capacity rises with bond area, and a stronger adhesive shifts the whole line up. So bond geometry is a design variable: if a joint is marginal, adding bond area is often the easiest fix, and a large-area foam-tape bond can outperform a small high-strength bond.

The simple shear view is not the whole story, real joints also see peel and cleavage at the edges, so the design keeps the load in shear and validates the joint with a test. Send the available area and the load and engineering will size the bond.

Those standards are test methods that measure a joint, not a pass a raw tape earns. ASTM D1002 and ASTM D3163 measure the apparent lap-shear strength of a specific bonded joint in tension; ASTM D3330 and ASTM D903 measure peel and stripping strength. The number that comes out is a property of the tested joint, the substrate and the surface preparation, not a fixed rating of the tape alone, because the same tape gives different results on different substrates and surface conditions.

So the honest framing is that H-O bonding materials are evaluated against and support compliance with these methods through the manufacturer's data sheet; H-O does not independently certify a material to them, and no peel, lap-shear or adhesion number is claimed on this page. The governing value for your joint comes from the data sheet for your substrate and a test of your actual bond.

As a non-stick, heat- and chemical-resistant surface that protects tooling and keeps the line running cleanly, rather than as a part of the finished pack. PTFE-coated fiberglass is woven glass cloth coated with PTFE, so it tolerates high temperature and resists adhesive, resin and chemical pickup, which makes it the material for heat-seal bar covers, hot-tooling protection, fixture surfaces and slip and release sheets in a lamination or assembly line.

It can be supplied plain or adhesive-backed so it stays in place on a tool. In a battery assembly that uses heat-seal, lamination or adhesive processes, these process aids prevent stick, scorch and contamination at the tooling. H-O and slits PTFE-coated fiberglass to the tooling or fixture geometry. Describe the process and the tooling and engineering will confirm the grade and the temperature and chemical resistance against the data sheet.

Six things move a recommendation from a guess to a real direction: the job (structural bond, attachment, serviceable interface, or process aid), both substrates and their surface energy and any coating, the load type (shear, peel, cleavage) and the available bond area, the bondline (gap fill versus thin and flat), the temperature and environment, and any serviceability or rework requirement.

Add the bond geometry or a drawing with the bond footprint and area called out, the liner and pull-tab needs, and the prototype and annual volume, and engineering can match a family, a grade direction and a converting approach, then confirm the grade-level peel and lap-shear behavior against the manufacturer's data sheet and a test of your joint. The "What to send H-O" box below lists these.

If you only know the substrates and the load, that is a fine starting point.

H-O is a precision converter, not a raw-material producer. We do not formulate, extrude or coat the acrylic foam tapes, transfer tapes, adhesives, PTFE-coated fiberglass or low-surface-energy systems; we buy tape, adhesive, film and coated fabric from the material manufacturers and convert it to your drawing, by die-cutting, kiss-cutting, laser and waterjet cutting, lamination, tabbing, slitting and kitting, with material traceability and lot-level data-sheet records.

Every bonding part is made-to-order; we do not carry finished parts in stock and we do not advertise a no-minimum policy, though prototype quantities through full production runs are equally welcome and the minimum varies by material and part. Prototype and production timing is summarized in the process strip near the top of the page and on the quote form.

Send your drawing or describe the substrates and the load through the form below for a specific quote.

Surface preparation drives bond strength as much as tape selection. The general sequence is: clean with the tape manufacturer’s recommended solvent wipe, let it flash off, apply the manufacturer’s primer or adhesion promoter where the substrate calls for one, then apply the tape with firm, even pressure so the adhesive wets out. Follow the specific tape maker’s surface-prep guidance — substrates differ, and low-surface-energy plastics usually need the promoter step.

Yes — material swatches and cut samples are available on request, subject to material availability. For evaluation builds, the usual path is to send the part drawing so prototype parts are cut from the actual grade and thickness under consideration; that puts representative parts in your fixture instead of a generic swatch.