Feature: From Science to Solution - Get to Know Our Lab

How the Avery Dennison Painesville Innovation Center can help converters, tier suppliers, and OEMs grow their business in a competitive industry.

Like a high-performance engine, the Automotive industry is a complex and interwoven network of moving parts. It is also very competitive, and it moves fast as new technologies supplant older ones. To really succeed in this space means matching that pace.

It follows that OEM specifications are constantly changing, and those changes can be challenging for customers to keep up with. Fortunately, when it comes to high performance adhesive tapes engineered for the industry, they have a collaborator in the Avery Dennison Painesville Innovation Center—our lab.

Our technical heart and soul

Our lab—an ISO 17025 certified, ANSI accredited facility—is the technical heart and soul of Avery Dennison Performance Tapes. It is our science hub, where we engineer new products to meet needs identified across a wide range of industries.

The lab has a broad scope of capabilities, broken down into three areas:

  • Synthesis Lab: Our R&D center. Here, we design new adhesives, or tweak existing adhesives to meet the requirements of new applications.

  • Analytical Lab: Our home of material analysis. Here, we analyze chemical composition and physical properties of adhesives and tape constructions.

  • TAPPI Lab: Where we test finished adhesive properties, finding out how tapes will perform with various substrates and in various environmental conditions.

Customized solutions for specific customer needs

The Innovation Center is also where we perform value-added lab services in support of specific customer requests. If an Avery Dennison adhesive product is not currently certified for a particular OEM specification, for instance, the lab can do that certification work at no extra cost to the customer. That means there’s no need for the customer to incur the expense and delay of working with a third-party laboratory.

Products certified to automotive OEM specifications

Once a product is certified to an OEM specification, our documentation becomes available—again, at a no-extra-cost value add—to all customers through our OEM certification finder

Customers can search by OEM, specification number, Avery Dennison tape product, lamination material, and substrate material. That search will bring up a list of products we have certified against those criteria in our accredited laboratory. The customer can then view/print a signed test report and include the certification in their OEM PPAP submissions.

It can take only seconds—just the time it takes to get in front of a computer screen and key in some information. And it means the customer can proceed with confidence, knowing a product is certified to specifications provided by the OEM.

Every certification is a success story

“Every combination found on the certification finder was created to meet a customer need at some point,” says Automotive Applications Specialist Jake Cowdrick, . “OEM specs are getting more robust and demanding. We really do think outside the box to find solutions that will work for the customer.” 

To learn more about the Painesville Innovation Center watch this video, or consult with us on lab services that can help you grow your business in this competitive industry, contact your Avery Dennison account manager.