Life on the road to success

Mobility never stands still; good ideas and innovative top performance speed up progress. That is the view from tesa. “The global automotive industry is in the midst of the greatest transformation in history – and tesa is right in the middle of it,” adds the company. “Today, a car may contain more than 130 adhesive applications. In 2021, adhesive pads are applied by robots to an electric car, while 90 years ago, the suspension strut of a pre-war vehicle was covered with a simple wrap.”

Corrosion protection for the car body

The swift development pace on the street is often accompanied by tesa, the company adds. “Recently, even international experts were amazed at the cooperation between Porsche and tesa. Will elegant sports cars like the fully electric Taycan be glued together from now on? Yes, absolutely – and with the help of a robot! There are up to 200 holes in every car body, which are initially necessary for the painting process and assembly work, and which have then to be closed again to protect the vehicle against corrosion.” 

Normally, this task is still performed by hand using plastic plugs – an extremely time-consuming, straining and personnel-intensive process. The alternative? “tesa adhesive patches that a robot applies quickly and reliably. That's industry 4.0! After all, there's no pit stop on the road to the future.”

Fast track through the turn of an era 

For many years, the automotive division has been the largest pillar of tesa's industrial business: it accounts for approximately three quarters of Group sales (2020: 1,326 million euros).

“The multifunctional adhesive tapes can do so much more than just bond, harness or seal parts. The latest innovations include, for example, the special product tesa FireGuard, which was developed for the so-called battery footprint in e-mobiles and can endure flames of up to 500 degrees Celsius for six minutes.”

This way, in the event of a battery fire, people in the passenger compartment are protected, tesa adds.  “As an industrial partner with development centres in Germany, China and the USA, tesa sees itself well prepared for the transition of the automobile into the electric and digital age. Last, but not least, the automotive sector benefits from another large business area within the tesa Group: electronics. Because today’s automobile moves at turbo speed to turn into some kind of tablet on four wheels.”

Wraps for vehicles

“Already in the past, innovation and inventiveness have been tesa’s power – for horsepower. Some stones were removed from the way.  In the early 1930s, the roads were still bumpy. The steel struts groaned beneath the bodywork, catching every pothole, every bump. They soon creaked and crunched because the dirt and rust on the road got to them. ‘Beiersdorf's Federschutzgamaschen’" (spring protection gaiters ) got the four-wheelers back on track: for 35 Reichsmarks, the adhesive bindings made of rubber were wrapped around the leaf suspensions like a leg compression, and then coated with a quick-drying varnish.”

The gaiters were watertight and airtight, the essential lubricating film on the metal was retained and rusting became a thing of the past. “The term 'anti-aging' was not yet known at the time,” comments tesa, “but the advertising was aimed precisely at that point: ‘Your car springs will be brand new even after years!’ promised the ad. For five years, there was a little less rattling on Germany's streets, thanks to these gaiters. Then the product was done.

But, 85 years later, tesa is once again wrapping enthusiastically, it concludes. “Wrapping technology in various forms, known as wire harnessing, now protects cable harnesses in modern cars, for example. In this product segment, tesa counts among the top three worldwide providers in terms of sales.”