3M Adhesive Helps Bring Manufacturing Back To The UK

BRACKNELL, United Kingdom – December 23, 2008: 3M 950 Adhesive Transfer Tape helps enable faster turnaround for a car privacy shade manufacturer.

3M 950 Adhesive Transfer Tape from 3M, the diversified technology company, offers so many advantages that it has helped enable a manufacturer of automotive privacy shades to accelerate lead times and migrate its production back to the UK from the Far East.

A cheaper alternative to window tinting – even for vehicle manufacturers – the shades, unlike others on the market, cover the entire surface area of the window while still allowing it to be wound down. Production for 300 car models was undertaken in the Far East, but OE Sunshades soon realised that the overly long lead times and the cost of airfreight were wiping out many of the savings achieved in the region. It was at this stage, thanks to the performance of 3M's 950 Adhesive Transfer Tape, that it engineered out as much of the labour as it could and brought production back to Nottinghamshire.

One of the primary issues faced during development of the automotive OEM and aftermarket shades was the ability to keep the shade material taught on the metal frame prior to the application of a woven-edge binding. "We tried everything," explains Stephen Giles, operations director of OE Sunshades. "Other tapes, sprays, heat-applied adhesives and nothing seemed to be able to hold the fabric firmly, with it often detaching or rucking prior to the final sewing operation. After a series of trial runs, we finally found our candidate – 3M 950 Tape delivered exactly what we wanted. Another plus was the ease at which it comes off its backing paper – you will not believe the mess we created with tapes from other suppliers."

"At the moment we are adding about two new car models per week – with many manufacturers sending us newly launched vehicles to measure up. Now it is feasible to receive a car at 08:30 and have it out of the door by 16:30; having measured the apertures, developed the CNC programme for the wire frame, created manufacturing procedures and fabricated initial quality-control samples – all in just eight hours.

We do get offers of alternative fastening, some of which are cheaper, but to date, none of them have been as effective in terms of speed of application, in-situ adhesion and negligible quality rejection rates,” continues Giles. “With just six people working in a single shift pattern, we are able to produce more than 500 sets of shades per week."

3M 950 Tape is ideal for attaching a wide variety of similar and dissimilar materials where an aggressive adhesive with high initial adhesion is required. This pressure-sensitive, medium-firm acrylic adhesive also features good shear holding power and, at just 0.13mm thick, the clear adhesive does not impact on the aesthetics of the substrates being bonded. The tapes can also be used on a huge variety of substrates and variants cater for simple paper/card bonding to high-pressure, high-strength versions suitable for metals and ceramics.

Thanks to 3M 950 tape, OE Sunshades has two patents; – the first covers the way the shades clip into the window surrounds (allowing the windows to open with the shade in place), the second covers the unique semi-permanent way it fixes the material prior to edge binding.

"The shades have been a real success," Giles continues. "In one major future car launch only five optional accessories are being offered, one of which is our shades. From an aftermarket perspective, it looks like a major UK automotive replacement glazing firm will be handling our privacy shades, alongside the only other non-glass product it offers – windscreen wipers.”