If you select the wrong sticker and label adhesives, it may lead to labels peeling off or cold chain failure. This article will explain adhesives in detail and help you choose the right adhesive for your stickers and labels.
Types of Label Adhesives And When to Use
By Performance
Permanent Adhesive
As the name suggests, it’s basically designed for long-lasting use. It sticks to 90% of surfaces and can remain stuck under most conditions. In this case, it’s by far the most popular one.
- Durability: long-term applications (up to three years)
- Environment: indoors and outdoors, harsh conditions, exposure to chemicals, water, or solvents, extreme temperatures
- Surfaces: glass, metal, paint, galvanised or powder-coated metal, paper, cardboard, wood, stone, leather, plastic bottles or tubs, fibreglass
- Best for: product labels, asset tracking & security, shipping labels, warning & safety labels, outdoor labels
- Avoid if: food contact areas, fragile surfaces, direct human skin contact
Removable Adhesive
It’s a secure adhesion and easy to remove from products. This kind of adhesive allows you to apply and remove without leaving any sticky residue. If your products are on seasonal sales or limited-time promotions, removable adhesive is the best choice.
- Durability: short-term applications
- Environment: indoors, dry
- Surface: glass, paper, painted plastic surfaces, and anywhere you worry about the sticky residue
- Best for: price tag, medical charts and specimens, recyclable or reusable containers
- Avoid if: chemicals and water, extreme temperatures
Freezer-grade Adhesive
It’s made to stick through cold and moisture. In cold conditions, this kind of adhesive stays strong and won’t peel off from your products during shipping or loading. It is often safe for food-contact products.
- Durability: long-term cold storage
- Environment: freezer cold, humidity
- Surface: frozen packaging, plastic films
- Best for: frozen food labels（frozen meat,seafood,ice creams),cold chain product
- Avoid if: high temperature
By Material
Acrylic Adhesive
It’s a kind of pressure-sensitive adhesive and one of the most widely used adhesives for the packaging industry. Its good performance under extreme conditions makes this type of adhesive ideal for demanding applications. If you need your labels to perform well in extreme environments, this is a good choice.
- Durability: long-term applications
- Environment: outdoors, extreme temperatures such as cold, moisture, solvents, and ultraviolet rays (UV)
- Surface: glass, metal, PTE
- Best for: glass bottles & jars, outdoor product labels, metal containers, and industrial labels
- Avoid if: PE / PP surfaces
Rubber-based Adhesive
This kind of adhesive can perform well under controlled environments and has quick bonding ability, which is suitable for plastic. What’s more, it possesses cost efficiency if you need high-volume applications.
- Durability: short-term applications
- Environment: indoor, no high heat or freezing conditions
- Surface: rough and uneven ones, dusty or slightly contaminated
- Best for: plastic packaging, corrugated cardboard, and shipping boxes
- Avoid if: sunlight, extreme conditions, long-term outdoor applications
Silicone Adhesive
Silicone adhesive is a special adhesive designed for extreme conditions, where acrylic or rubber-based adhesives would not work out. But its price is higher than those two types for its better performance. If your applications include resistance to chemicals and harsh environments, long stability, and adherence to challenging surfaces, this could be your best choice.
- Durability: long-term applications
- Environment: any
- Surface: silicone-coated or treated materials, and any difficult surface
- Best for: products exposed to chemicals or harsh environments
- Avoid if: general packaging
Hot Melt Adhesive
It’s a moldable solid adhesive that is non-toxic and solvent-free, offering easy transportation and storage, fast bonding speed, and strong adhesion.
- Durability: short-term use
- Environment: indoor, no long-time sunlight, no heat or chillness
- Surface: excellent for rough surfaces
- Best for: stickers and labels for logistics, shipping, or short-term use
- Avoid if: long-time sunlight, high heat, or low temperature
3 Key Considerations When Choosing Adhesives
But when you choose your adhesives, you need to consider the surface type, environmental conditions, and the difference between adhesion and cohesion.
Surface Energy (Most Important)
It’s a term describing how sticky a surface is. The higher the surface energy, the easier an adhesive will stick.
So that is the reason why plastics like PE/PP are difficult to stick. For they have low surface energy. Why are glass and metal easier to stick to? For they have high surface energy.
Environment (Temperature & Moisture)
What affects the stickiness of an adhesive is the environment. If your product is exposed to cold, humidity, and water, those non-resistant adhesives will peel off easily. So, the application environment and service environment both should be taken into consideration.
Adhesion vs Cohesion
Adhesion refers to the bond between the adhesive and the surface. This determines how well a sticker or label sticks to materials. While cohesion refers to the internal strength of the adhesive itself. If an adhesive has strong cohesion, it can be removed without residue and has stable performance. If it has a weak cohesion, then residue or adhesive splitting may happen.
Applications by Industry
Food & Beverage Industry
In this industry, sticker and label failure often occurs in cold and wet environments, not under normal conditions. Such conditions can weaken adhesion and cause stickers and labels to peel off. Therefore, adhesives must perform stably under temperature changes.
- Typical Applications: bottles (glass/plastic), canned food, frozen food packaging
- Recommended Adhesives: acrylic adhesive (general use), freezer-grade adhesive (cold chain)
Cosmetics & Personal Care
Packaging is part of the brand identity, so the labels cannot peel off easily. And many of the containers’ surfaces are curved and flexible, which adds tension to the stickers and labels. Those products often contain fragrances, oils, and alcohol-based ingredients; if exposed to these substances, labels with wrong adhesives would easily fall off.
- Typical Applications: skincare bottles, shampoo/lotion containers, perfume packaging
- Recommended Adhesives: high-performance acrylic adhesive
Logistics & E-commerce
In this industry, most labels are applied to corrugated cardboard and recycled cartons, which makes adhesion more difficult. Your stickers and labels are often applied automatically at high speed in bulk, so adhesive needs to be quick-bonding and cost-efficient.
- Typical Applications: shipping labels, warehouse labeling, e-commerce packaging labels
- Recommended Adhesives: hot melt adhesive (primary choice), rubber-based adhesive (for difficult surfaces or dusty conditions)
Industrial & Chemical Industry
Industrial labels and stickers may be exposed to chemicals, such as solvents, acids, and oils. Extreme temperatures should also be taken into consideration. Therefore, the adhesive must withstand extreme conditions and long-term exposure.
- Typical Applications: chemical containers, machinery labels, warning labels, and industrial equipment identification
- Recommended adhesives: high-performance acrylic, silicone adhesive (extreme conditions)
Pharmaceutical & Healthcare
Stickers and labels’ failure can cause safety problems and even worse ones. So labels and stickers should be stable over time and can remain undamaged under extreme conditions.
- Typical Applications: medicine bottles, medical devices, diagnostic kits, and laboratory samples
- Recommended Adhesives: high-purity acrylic adhesive
Common Label Adhesive Mistakes to Avoid
Choosing Based on Price Only
Low prices don’t mean a good fit. As we have mentioned before, there are factors you need to consider when choosing suitable adhesives. Surface material, temperature conditions, and application methods all matter. So price is not the only standard. If you are not sure which one to choose, tell us and let us choose the most suitable one for your stickers and labels.
Using One adhesive for All Applications
It may seem to be efficient, but usually there isn’t a “one-size-fits-all” approach. Especially about adhesives. Such behaviour would cause costly labelling mistakes. If you want to simplify inventory, aim for a small set of adhesives that cover your main use cases—not just one universal option.
FAQ
Why Do My Labels Keep Peeling Off?
Due to poor surface energy, incorrect adhesive selection, or unsuitable environment, labels will peel off. So, before application, you can check whether the surface is clean and dry. And the most important thing is to match the adhesive to the material and environment.
Can You Customize Adhesives for My Product?
Yes. Just show us what kind of surface your stickers and labels stick to, and your other requirements about the durability and environment your stickers and labels will be in. We will customize it for you.
Do Label Adhesives Expire or Lose Performance over Time?
Yes, label adhesives can expire or lose performance over time, especially when they are not stored under proper conditions.
How Do I Test If an Adhesive is Suitable Before Mass Production?
The real test is crucial before scaling. We can send the sample to you, and then you apply it to the surface. Please make sure that the environment is the one when applying. And then observe the performance over time, usually 24-72 hours or longer.
Does Label Size or Shape Affect Adhesive Performance?
Yes, label design can influence adhesion. Small ones have less bonding area, so it will be easier to have edge warping. And sharp corners are more likely to lift.
Final Thoughts
From surface energy and environments to adhesive types and the application industry, those factors influence whether a sticker and a label can perform well. By understanding the types and influential factors, you can select an adhesive that fits your needs and find one that delivers a good, reliable, and long-lasting result. If you’re still unsure about what kind of adhesive fits your needs, we are willing to help you. Contact us, and we will help you find an effective and cost-efficient solution.
