This week’s EYE ON NPI (video) is going to stick with you for a looooong time – it’s 3M’s VHB Tape also known as “the tape you use when you want it to stick together forever”. This tape is the stuff of legend – it’s incredibly thin but strong, easy to apply and gives you near-epoxy-level strength in seconds.
3M VHB tape consists of a durable acrylic adhesive with viscoelastic acrylic foam. This provides an extraordinarily strong double-sided foam tape that adheres to a broad range of substrates, including aluminum, stainless steel, galvanized steel, composites, plastics, acrylic, polycarbonate, ABS, and painted or sealed wood and concrete. Our bonding tapes provide excellent shear strength, conformability, surface adhesion, and temperature resistance. They are commonly used in applications across a variety of markets, including transportation, appliance, electronics, construction, sign and display, and general industrial. Reliably bonds a variety of materials with strength and speed for permanent applications.
Seriously – we’ve seen it easily attach to metals, wood, plastic, rubber and it wont dry out and peel off like most foam tapes. It’s super strong, to the point we often feel kinda weird when we use it because don’t expect such incredible tensile strength. You can even build a push-scooter that is kept together just by VHB Tape as seen on YouTube.
It’s double sided tape. but its sticky enough you cant just have it on a reel like office double-sided tape. Each reel comes with a smooth plastic layer in between – we suppose this is the one material it doesn’t stick to very well. Clean both halves with 50/50 IPA. Carefully apply it while still on the plastic reel and then remove the protector. Now press the other half you want stuck together. Wait up to 3 days for max hold strength, but it’s pretty darn strong instantaneously.
This VHB is VHC (Very Heckin’ Cool) and extremely useful when you just want to attach this-to-that, no matter what material or environment. You can get this in sheets (!!) and rolls at Digi-Key. We are partial to the 5 yard 1/2″ wide roll which has just enough to be useful but there’s also a 1″ wide version and we picked up one of each.
Whatever 3M VHB tape style you’re looking for, Digi-Key has them in stock for immediate shipment. Order today and you can be stickin’ this-to-that by tomorrow afternoon!
See the 3M video below: