“Debonding on Demand" technology:
boosting circular economy

Sustainability

For years, scientists worked on creating the strongest bonds possible. Nowadays, we are working on making permanence a choice. Imagine you could take apart materials as easily as clicking a button. This vision becomes a reality with the "Debonding on Demand technology." In 2024, tesa expanded its portfolio of more sustainable innovations that help customers grab an advantage by getting ahead of competitors and regulatory changes.

Tags
Debonding on Demand

Billions of smartphones are thrown away every year. In 2022 alone, 5.3 billion cell phones were disposed of, which is a huge environmental problem. In China, over 6 billion cell phones are expected to be disposed of by 2025. These devices contain valuable materials such as gold, silver and rare earths, which are lost during disposal - apart from the waste generated by the disposal process.

tesa scientists constantly explore ways of cutting the environmental footprint of our products and processes – and that work extends beyond our manufacturing gates. Many customers share our passion for sustainability. And we support them on their path to a more sustainable future by providing innovative adhesive tapes that enable sustainability progress.

Our Debonding on Demand solutions are a powerful example that gathered momentum in 2024. These advanced technologies are opening up next-generation product and process designs for our customers. They form strong bonds. But they can also be removed without damage, leaving no residue. That makes them highly attractive for companies who want to step into a leading role on the journey towards a circular economy.

Debonding on demand solutions from tesa contribute to more sustainability in the value chain. During manufacturing, for example, our customers can remove the tapes to correct errors or optimize the position of parts and components. In this way, Debonding on Demand solutions save resources and reduce waste because less material gets scrapped.

The reworkable properties of Debonding on Demand solutions support sustainability in a huge variety of industries. As digital tech speeds up and automates production processes, there is exciting potential to boost resource efficiency by enabling rapid debonding of adhesive tapes.

Repairability is another advantage of the debonding technology as it makes it easier – or even possible - to fix faulty parts or replace broken components. For end users, this extends the lifetime of their products. It also saves resources and avoids energy consumption by eliminating the need to manufacture a replacement part or component.

Cell phone manufacturers are switching to Debonding on Demand solutions to get ahead of proposed legislation in the European Union (EU), for example. New rules may demand that all devices can be repaired by consumers - with no special knowledge or tools.

have been equipped with innovative adhesive tape technology from tesa that enables the battery to be replaced since 2014.

Debonding on Demand solutions also make it possible to dismantle products when they have served their intended purpose, allowing for the recovery of valuable materials. These materials can then be reused, repurposed or recycled. In this way, our innovative tapes promote the transition to a circular economy where materials stay in the economic cycle for longer and waste is reduced significantly.

Automakers are exploring the potential of Debonding on Demand technologies to enable the recycling of batteries and other vehicle components, aligning with the EU's increasing focus on reducing end-of-life waste in the automotive sector. The End-of-Life Vehicles Directive, which is currently being updated, sets ambitious targets for recycling and reusing vehicle parts. Additionally, regulatory efforts like the Repair Clause aim to enhance the reparability of vehicles, allowing consumers to choose replacement parts more freely. Against this backdrop, Debonding on Demand solutions are crucial in unlocking future-facing designs that achieve outstanding bonding strength while supporting progress in recycling. By facilitating the disassembly and reuse of components, these solutions contribute significantly to achieving the EU's waste reduction and recycling goals, ultimately promoting a more circular economy in the automotive industry.

Debonding_on_demand_car_auto_still_v1-Screen

Already more than 130 tesa tapes may be installed in an electric car

tesa’s teams have deep expertise in chemistry, material science, process and machine engineering as well as up-to-date knowledge of the latest regulatory trends. This extends tesa’s positive contribution to sustainability far beyond our manufacturing gates by enabling rework, repair and recycling for customers. And it accelerates our shared journey toward a better and more sustainable future.

How do these tapes debond on demand?

Electricity: Low-voltage electricity causes electrochemical reactions and allows debonding the adhesive within a few seconds.
Heat: Heat can initiate a foaming in the adhesive which causes the tape to detach. Heat can be generated conventionally, or locally in the adhesive by e.g. induction: Like modern kitchen stoves, electromagnetic fields generate heat via a metal strip that is built into the tape, causing separation of the bond.
Laser: In just a few seconds, light from a Near Infrared (NIR) laser weakens the tape structure – causing it to debond.
Mechanical release: Developed from the famous tesa® Powerstrips, these Bond & Detach® tapes feature a tab that users can pull to remove the tape by significantly reducing the bonding strength via stretching.

Find out more about tesa’s sustainability strategy

We do: Support customers

Achieving a higher level of sustainability is an important goal for many of our customers - just as it is for us. We are taking this path together with them and supporting them with innovative adhesive solutions. In addition to our own product sustainability, we are working to ensure that our customers enjoy ecological benefits through the use of our products; for example, tesa® Bond & Detach makes smartphone components recyclable and can be removed easily without leaving any residue. The aim is to make these contributions more visible in the future.