A sensor strip that opens the trunk with a foot movement was to be glued instead of clipped in the future. However, the material released solvents, one substrate had to be primed, while the other did not.

INNO TAPE combined two adhesive tapes with different properties and also took care of the entire application process—from priming to repackaging.

The result: ready-to-install, tested parts and stable processes in just nine months.

Find out in our case study how individual material combinations solve complex requirements.

In modern vehicles, the trunk opens with a foot movement under the bumper—this is made possible by an
integrated sensor strip. In this case, it was originally clipped on, but was to be glued in the future.

Technical challenges

It became clear early on in the discussions that standard adhesive tape would not be suitable for this application.

Over time, the PVC backing material of the sensor strip releases solvents that can attack the adhesive. Therefore, one side of the strip had to be primed to create a barrier – the other side, however, could not be pretreated because the production process did not allow for additional steps.

In addition, there was an adhesive gap of over two millimeters, which was too large for standard adhesive tapes. Furthermore, the customer had no previous experience with adhesive tape solutions and therefore required comprehensive support in development and processing.

Objective

The objective was to replace the previously clipped sensor strip with an adhesive-based fastening to allow greater design freedom, reduce component weight, and at the same time ensure reliable, reproducible assembly.

We worked with the customer to develop a two-stage concept:

1. Material combination

• A specially adapted combination of two adhesive tapes has been developed:
• A base product for the primed side.
• A product with excellent adhesion to low-energy plastics for the second side without additional pre-treatment.

This made it possible to safely bridge the gap and ensure adhesion to both materials—without any changes to the customer's process.

2. Application service:

At the customer's request, we also took care of the entire tape application process:

• Removing the pre-assembled sensor strips from their original packaging
• Cleaning and priming the surface
• Applying the adhesive tape
• Repackaging the parts

This provided the customer with a ready-to-install product that could be integrated directly into the assembly process – without any additional
effort at the factory.