The greatest of life’s mysteries that has baffled normal people around the world…
How does a sticker stick to things? Where do my socks disappear to when I attempt to dry them? Why does a USB flash drive never go in on the first attempt?!?
Okay, maybe these aren’t the greatest mysteries known to man, and we may not be able to answer exactly who steals your socks, but we can MOST CERTAINLY answer some questions about stickers.
HOW DO STICKERS WORK:
There are two main driving forces in how a sticker… well … sticks. Those forces being adhesion and cohesion. Adhesion should sound familiar because of the word adhesive, which is the part of the sticker that actually attaches itself to other materials (or molecules for our science buffs out there).
Cohesion is the other concept we need to understand, and it is actually used in creating a successful adhesive. COHESION is the process of similar molecules sticking together. So think about it this way… If an adhesive does not stick to itself strongly enough, then it would fall apart like water. (Water being a great real-world example of an adhesive with weak cohesion… weaker than solids anyway).
Then there is the paper/material itself that the design is printed on. The adhesive plays another role here, because it has to attach itself to the part of the label with the art. So, the adhesive must attach itself to the paper with the art, attach itself to itself for the adhesive to not fall apart, and attach to things after this process to be considered a sticker. In essence, there are almost multiple stickers in one simple sticker. This entire process is actually all pretty complicated & any mistake by the product vendors or the print shop could end in a client disaster.
So in layman’s terms
Adhesion: The process of sticking to other things
Cohesion: The process of sticking to itself
Science Diagram:
Strong Adhesion + Strong Cohesion = Good Sticker
Strong Adhesion + Weak Cohesion = A sticker that falls apart. Not a good sticker.
No Adhesion + Strong Cohesion = Not a sticker. Probably a brick.
Weak Adhesion + Weak Cohesion = Some type of liquid that is not water… Also not a sticker.