Appliance Innovation: Designing New Appliances with the Help of the 3M™ VHB™ Tape LVO Family

The 3M™ VHB™ tape family has a long history of revolutionizing the designs of car interiors, planes, trains, and many home appliances. It's a popular option for securing smooth and low-energy surfaces with a strong bond that can grow stronger over time. The new LVO range offers many new benefits. The most important among them is the new FDA approval as safe for indirect contact with food. This opens up all sorts of opportunities for designing kitchen appliances and food laboratory equipment. Since the VHB foam tape line is often used for securing decals or logos to the exterior of appliances and equipment, having a tape rated for indirect food contact creates many new opportunities for decorating and creating stand-out designs.

Designing Stylish Kitchen Appliances

Building new appliances for the home or lab isn't always easy. Today's consumers want ovens and countertop mixers that not only perform as expected for years under difficult conditions but also look great while doing it. Rivets and other fasteners make it harder to keep appliances clean, making them an unfortunate feature in most designs. Yet, you must secure outer covers and other parts without worrying that heating cycles or vibrations will lead to premature failure. Thanks to the release of the newest 3M™ Very High Bond (VHB) foam tapes that are approved as food-safe, there are more options than ever for executing all kinds of creative appliance designs.

Thanks to a strong bond and resistance to moisture and heat, VHB tape from 3M has played a role in appliance manufacturing for years. It's commonly used for applications like sealing oven door components or attaching the glass in refrigerator shelves to the plastic brackets supporting it. There's no need for protruding rivet heads that are hard to clean around or visible surface markings for fasteners. In many cases, you can even replace spot welds for a faster manufacturing and assembly process. Approval for indirect food contact by the FDA means that the LVO tape family can be used in parts of appliances where it couldn't before.

Building Better Equipment for Food Laboratories

The release of a low VOC, food-safe tape product isn't just good news for companies selling to consumers who want to outfit their kitchens. This breakthrough in LVO tape from 3M also means it's more valuable than ever for designing valuable food laboratory equipment. Since these tapes are highly resistant to excessive heat and shearing forces, they work where other fasteners fail over time. Lab workers spend less time dealing with equipment failure or inaccurate results and more time getting the most from their equipment. This foam tape's sound-dampening and vibration-controlling features also allow you to deal with issues that could affect the workplace or test results.

Benefit: Control Sound and Vibrations

  • 3M VHB tapes are made from an acrylic foam base that is viscoelastic.
  • Absorbing energy allows this bond to relieve stress without breaking.
  • Sounds and vibrations are dampened rather than multiplied.
  • Appliances and equipment are quieter, easier to operate, and produce less internal wear and tear.

Benefit: Low VOC

  • This tape is formulated to produce as few Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) as possible.
  • VOCs off-gas create unpleasant fumes and a greasy film known as fog.
  • Low fogging means a shorter waiting time before the product can ship out.
  • Low VOC content allows for use in sensitive and enclosed areas.
  • VOC fogging can coat electronics and lead to premature failure, which isn't a problem with this tape.

Benefit: Adhesion to Low Energy Surfaces

  • Materials like many plastics have low surface energy.
  • Adhesives and other liquids struggle to spread over this kind of surface, preferring to bead up instead.
  • The adhesives used in this 3M VHB tape work well, even on low-energy surfaces like engineered plastics.
  • Use more low surface energy materials in your designs without resorting to the need for mechanical fasteners.
    • Strong bonds reduce the chances of unexpected failure and adhesion loss.

Other Uses for This Tape

Of course, the 3M™ VHB™ tape LVO family does much more than assist in the design of new food-related appliances and lab equipment. It's widely used in the transportation industry in the manufacturing of cars, trucks, trains, and even plane interiors. 3M's new LVO tape is a particularly great choice for many of these applications because of its low VOC formula. Fogging becomes a major problem in enclosed spaces like vehicles, so choosing a tape that produces as few VOCs as possible can reduce customer complaints.

The strong adhesion factor, even on low-energy surfaces, creates new opportunities to bond engineered plastics and other useful materials in situations where trim pieces or covers are needed. Heat resistance of up to 450 degrees F for short periods means that this tape can be used close to motors or other sources of heat without compromising the bond. In addition to acting as strong bonding agents for metal, plastic, and glass, these tapes are ideal for sound-dampening applications where parts might rub or tap together.

Exploring the Entire 3M™ VHB™ Family

Thanks to a variety of widths, thicknesses, and features, VHB tapes are available for every application. Consider the LVO range for a low VOC option that won't affect the long-term durability of the products you design. If you need a higher heat resistance, greater shear strength, or other specific features to achieve your engineering goals, we have a 3M VHB tape to meet your needs.

Discuss your options for permanent bonding and eliminating fasteners with 3M tape products with our experts today. You may be surprised to learn how this kind of industrial foam adhesive can make all the difference in the speed, efficiency, and cost of assembling appliances and more.