Can tapes unlock innovation?

Matthew Bongers, Product Development Engineer, and Audrey Sherman, Division Scientist, for 3M Medical Solutions Division highlights the importance of elastomeric adhesives.

Tapes are often viewed as a simple material, secondary to device function. They don’t power a medical device and don’t compute, store, or display any data. While all true on the surface, these assumptions are rooted in a crucial misconception.  

When a closer look is taken, it becomes clear that tapes are a critical part of enabling a device to function as it’s intended. Tapes can adhere device components together and stick the device to the skin, doing both for the device’s intended wear time. When either of these functions fails, the device could fall apart or detach from skin, affecting its ability to help the person using it to transform their health. 

Not just any tape will do, especially when sticking to skin. Tapes with elastomeric backings – ones that can stretch, recover, and then stretch again – make many modern devices capable of functioning the way they do and the potential for future innovation possible.  

Tapes help maintain skin health 

Tapes must accommodate unique challenges to be successful, regardless of their function in the overall device design. If they’re holding components together, they must do so without interacting with other materials or the device’s ability to track data. 

If they’re sticking a device to skin, they need to have an elastic and breathable backing, which allows the skin to breathe and expel moisture while stretching and flexing just as skin normally would, all the while holding something that very much does not stretch – like a rigid backing or device – on top of it. This is where elastomeric tapes can really shine. 

Skin may reject whatever is stuck to it by forcing the tape off or react to it by developing a rash or other irritation. The device’s ability to reliably fulfil its duty then diminishes. 

Creating next-gen devices requires that tapes be designed into the system early. Selecting the best one should start with reframing the tape’s performance criteria from what properties the tape needs to possess to a more holistic approach: what the device needs to achieve. Your materials partner can better identify options that serve the device’s entirety, rather than options that meet a narrower set of expectations. 

Tapes help save on healthcare costs  

When a tape cannot perform the way it needs, there’s a domino effect that goes beyond a singular layer.  

It could mean data is no longer reliable or being collected. The person using the device then cannot track their health status and adjust their behaviour when needed. Their care provider can no longer use that information to consult and treat. Health could worsen and additional care may need to be sought. 

When tapes are performing optimally, they can allow longer device wear times and maintain skin health. Health statuses can be tracked, and therapy extended from the comfort of homes. And the body’s largest organ can function, without being jeopardised by something meant to help it. 

Tapes help usher in improved designs 

It’s not enough to create a device that reliably and accurately tracks the data it needs to track. It also needs to accommodate the end user’s preferences and fit into their daily lives as seamlessly as possible.  

Tapes have the potential to help solve some of the toughest design challenges. They can offer more flexibility in slimming down profiles and weight because they take up less space than mechanical fasteners. Elastomeric tapes can make devices more comfortable to wear and stay adhered longer because of their ability to stretch and move with the skin. 

In a world with rapidly transforming devices, designs need to be innovative and utilise all the advantages they can to make it to market successfully.