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Hot Melt Adhesive Film
Hot Melt Adhesive Film, TPU, EVA, PA, PES & PO Grades for Industrial Bonding
Hot melt adhesive film is a solid thermoplastic bonding layer supplied on rolls. Heat and pressure melt it into both substrates; on cooling it solidifies and carries the load. Teng Yang supplies five polymer families — TPU, EVA, PA (polyamide), PES (copolyester) and PO (polyolefin) — and the one that matters for your line is decided by temperature, not by price.
Also sold under these names
The same material trades as plain film, as dry film adhesive, and as heat-activated adhesive film. Names vary by industry; the chemistry does not.
What this is not:
not a glue-gun stick, not craft iron-on adhesive paper or webbing sold by the yard, not thermal lamination film for print finishing, not DTF transfer powder, and not a pressure-sensitive tape. Those share the words “hot melt” and nothing else.
5
Polymer families, one decision
60–80 °C
Where the cheapest family stops
200 vs 70 °C
PA applies hot, serves cool
D1876
The method that defines peel
Per order
What we confirm instead of guess
Hot Melt Adhesive Film: The Grade Decides the Bond, Not the Price
A bond that passes on the press and fails in the field is almost always a temperature decision made on price. It wetted out, the lamination looked right, and the part shipped. Then the service environment reached a number nobody had written down.
Hot melt adhesive film is a thermoplastic. That single word carries the whole risk: what heat joins, heat releases. A grade chosen because it was the cheapest per square metre has a ceiling, and the ceiling is a number.
WARN_01
What that failure actually looks like
Nagase ChemteX reports field complaints of “automotive interior parts bonded with hot melt adhesive to black-coated panels delaminating due to high dashboard surface temperatures during summer months.”
The adhesive did its job at assembly. A dark dashboard in August was the load case, and it was never in the specification.
The category answers “how hot?” with an adjective
Read any supplier’s film category page and you’ll find the words “high-temperature” and “low-temperature” used as though they were specifications. They aren’t specifications. They’re comparisons with the other thing on the same price list.
Four phrases carry most of the weight on most hot melt adhesive film products pages, and none of them is a number:
01
“Excellent adhesion”
to which substrate, at what peel value, by which method? Without those three, this phrase ranks nothing against anything.
02
“Environmentally friendly”
usually resting on the absence of solvent alone, with no emissions figure and no standard named.
03
“Quick bonding” / “easy application”
line-speed claims with no line speed, and no press parameter attached.
04
“Durable”
durable through how many wash cycles, at what temperature, to which procedure?
We use those words on this page only to point at them. Every claim below either carries its source or says plainly that we don’t have the number.
SPEC_02
Why “softening point” cannot be a single number, from the standard itself
ASTM E28, the ring-and-ball softening point method, states in its own scope that softening of these materials “does not take place at a definite temperature.”
E28 is written for resins derived from pine chemicals and hydrocarbons, so it doesn’t govern TPU, EVA, PA, PES or PO film. Its physics does: an amorphous thermoplastic softens across a band, and a band isn’t a word.
So when a page tells you a film is “high-temperature,” it has told you nothing you can put in a drawing. Ask which number, measured how, and against what load, and the sentence usually collapses.
DATA_03
What we do differently, stated plainly
The honest version of this category
Teng Yang runs cast film, blown film, coating and meltblown lines with an in-house lab, and we still won’t claim a single house number for peel strength or activation temperature. Unlike the adjectives above, every figure on this page is an industry-typical family reference with its source attached, or an admission that we don’t have it.
The trade-off is deliberate. You get less certainty from the page and more certainty from the test on your own press, which is where the mistake usually gets made anyway.
Five Hot Melt Adhesive Film Grades, TPU, EVA, PA, PES, PO
There’s no best hot melt adhesive film, there’s the one whose temperature band matches your service environment, and four others that will disappoint you in a way you can predict from this page. Teng Yang produces it in five polymer families. Each carries the published industry-typical figures for its chemistry below, and, more usefully, the case where you shouldn’t buy it.
TPU Hot Melt Adhesive Film
Thermoplastic polyurethane- The published family for bonding elastic substrates, Lycra, knitted fabric, elastane
- Stays flexible with the fabric instead of creating a stiff plate at the seam
- Elasticity is the reason it’s chosen, the bond line has to stretch and recover with the substrate
- Bonds textiles, leather, PVC and many plastics
- Not tacky at room temperature, so rolls handle and die-cut cleanly before activation
If TPU is where you’ve landed, our engineers walk the grade decision in detail in the complete guide to TPU hot melt adhesive film
Not this one when
Request TPU specifications
Your part sits in sustained heat. TPU is chosen for hand feel and stretch recovery, not for a temperature ceiling.
EVA Hot Melt Adhesive Film
Ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer- Melting point typically about 130 °C for the family
- Sufficient strength between 30–50 °C; usable below 60–80 °C
- Low creep resistance under sustained load
- Vinyl acetate content of roughly 18–29 % by weight sets its character
- Formulation moves the whole envelope, open time and melt viscosity are both formulation levers, not fixed family constants
Not this one when
Request EVA specifications
The bond must hold above 80 °C, or must hold a static load for a long time. EVA is the cheapest family on most price lists and that ceiling is why.
PA Hot Melt Adhesive Film
Copolyamide (polyamide) — the nylon family- Typically applied at over 200 °C and can degrade and char during processing
- Adequate bonding across −40 to 70 °C; some compositions reach 185 °C unloaded
- Hydrogen bonding holds strength almost to the melting point
- Those same hydrogen bonds absorb moisture, which can foam during application and leave voids
Not this one when
Request PA specifications
Your press cannot reach or hold the application temperature, or your stock has been sitting in humid storage without pre-drying.
PES Hot Melt Adhesive Film
Copolyester- Lower strength and melting point than a comparable polyamide, no hydrogen bonds
- Considerably more resistant to moisture than PA for the same reason
- Often highly crystalline, giving a narrow melting range
- That narrow range is an advantage on high-speed bonding lines
- Its moisture resistance is why it appears in washable garment and home-textile work
Not this one when
Request PES specifications
You need the maximum bond strength the shelf offers and your storage is dry. Then PA’s hydrogen bonding is the reason to accept its handling penalty.
PO Hot Melt Adhesive Film
Polyolefin- Very good adhesion to polypropylene, the substrate most families struggle with
- Good moisture barrier
- Chemical resistance against polar solvents and solutions of acids, bases and alcohols
- Longer open time than EVA and polyamide
Not this one when
Request PO specifications
You are bonding polar substrates and PP is nowhere in the stack. PO is a specialist answer to a difficult-to-bond plastic, not a general-purpose economy grade.
Film types, and the other forms the same chemistry ships in
All five families above are thermoplastic hot melt adhesive films: continuous, solid, supplied on a roll. Those same polymers are also converted into other forms, and form is a separate decision from chemistry.
Types of hot melt in this category are therefore two questions, not one: which polymer, and which form. Getting the polymer right and the form wrong still gives you a failed line trial.
The one classification the category never prints
Published family-level reference values. These describe the polymer chemistry, not a Teng Yang product specification — grade figures are confirmed per order.
| Family | Class | Published service range | Application temperature | Defining trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EVA | Low-performance | −40 to 80 °C | ~130 °C melt | Cheapest; low creep resistance under load |
| PO | Low-performance | Not published as a band | Long open time | Bonds polypropylene; specialist not economy |
| TPU | Elastomeric | Not published as a band | See conflict note below | Stretch and hand feel over heat ceiling |
| PES | High-performance | Narrow melting range | Below comparable PA | Moisture resistant; less strong than PA |
| PA | High-performance | −40 to 70 °C (185 °C unloaded) |
Over 200 °C | Strongest to near-melt; absorbs moisture |
Two things in that table are worth stopping on. Polyamide and polyester together account for less than a tenth of hot melt adhesive volume, which is why most category content quietly assumes you’re an EVA buyer. And PA’s two temperatures, over 200 °C to apply, −40 to 70 °C to serve, are routinely collapsed into the single word “high-temperature.”
A published conflict we are not going to paper over
On TPU, the encyclopaedic reference states a bonding temperature of only about 50–70 °C, at which the adhesive behaves as a soft rubber acting as a pressure-sensitive adhesive. Supplier literature across this category routinely quotes TPU film activation far higher.
Both statements are in print. They describe different grades under different conditions, and no page we found reconciles them. Treat any single TPU activation figure, ours included, as a grade question, not a family fact, and confirm it against the roll you’re actually buying.
Start From What You’re Bonding: Textile, Fabric, Leather or Metal
Real Buyer Inquiry
Buyers don’t arrive knowing they want a copolyester. They arrive knowing what’s in their hand.
“Hello, I am looking for laminated fabric with hot melt glue to apply on steel. Do you have on stock such fabric without flame retardent? thank you and have a nice day”
That’s the correct way to specify, and it’s why this section is indexed by the job rather than by the chemistry. Searches for hot melt adhesive film for textile fabric, for leather or for metal all describe the same act: naming the thing in your hand. Find the row that looks like your line and start there.
Application-to-Family Routing Matrix
-
Elastic fabric, knits, elastane — no-sew and seam-free garmentsTPUPublished family for stretch substrates; moves with the fabric instead of plating the seam
-
Garment interlining and fusiblesPA or PESIndustry fusibles are mainly built on copolyamides or copolyesters
-
Labels, badges, woven marksPA or PESSpecified on areal weight, not on adjectives — heavier nets for coarser substrates
-
Automotive leather seat laminationPESPublished at 100–110 °C for this specific job
-
Automotive interior trimPES or PACabin heat is the load case; selection is also driven by fogging, not only bond strength
Where our published answer changes for compliance reasons
Garment accessories, seam-free underwear and footwear are real applications for this material. They’re also gated by a certificate before they’re gated by a bond.
The Remelt Boundary: Why a Hot Melt Adhesive Bond Can Be Undone
Every hot melt film has a temperature at which it gives up. That isn’t a defect, it’s the definition of the material, and it’s the single most useful thing to understand before you specify one.
Thermoplastic means the bond is reversible
A thermoplastic hot melt film melts, wets out, cools and holds. Reheat it and it melts again. Whatever you bonded, you can unbond, which is why misplaced parts can be repositioned and why a mis-laminated panel isn’t always scrap.
That same property, used deliberately
So there’s a failure boundary at both ends of the range, not only the hot end. Cold doesn’t make a thermoplastic bond safer; it makes it brittle.
The reverse case demonstrates: “For heat-sensitive materials such as ABS housings or lithium-ion battery laminates, rapidly cooling the adhesive below its glass transition temperature makes it brittle. The bond can then be fractured with light impact.”
“Heat activated film” is sold under the same words and is not the same material
A large part of what the market calls heat-activated adhesive film is thermoset, not thermoplastic. Those products cure. Once cured, they don’t re-melt, can’t be repositioned, and won’t release your part back.
| Parameter | Thermoplastic hot melt film (this page) | Thermoset heat-activated film |
|---|---|---|
| Behaviour on reheat | Re-melts | Does not re-melt — chemically cured |
| Rework / reposition | Possible | Not possible |
| Service ceiling | Set by the polymer’s softening band | Reactive PUR published at −30 to 150 °C after cure |
| Failure mode you plan for | Softening under service heat | Bond line is permanent; the part is the scrap unit |
“We publish family reference values rather than a single house number because the two questions buyers ask us most, what will it hold, and what will it hold at, have different answers on every roll width, substrate pair and press we have seen. A number without its test conditions is decoration.”
Teng Yang Engineering Team, Shanghai Tengyang New Materials Technology Co., Ltd.
If your part genuinely needs to hold above the thermoplastic band, the honest answer is that you may not want a thermoplastic film at all. We would rather say that than sell you a grade that softens in service.
The Numbers Nobody Prints, Activation Window, Pressure, Dwell
We aren’t going to print a peel strength, a press pressure or a dwell time for our grades. We don’t have first-party test data for them, and we aren’t going to invent it.
DECODE FULL PROTOCOL
What we can do is tell you exactly which numbers to demand, which method produces each one, and why a single figure on a competitor’s page wouldn’t have helped you anyway.
The specification a hot melt adhesive film actually has. We confirm each of these against your substrates and process on request.
[DATA-REQ] Standard Metrology Matrix
| What you should be given | Method that defines it | What the standard itself says |
|---|---|---|
| Peel resistance | ASTM D1876 (T-peel) | Written for flexible adherends — the correct method for film. Reports relative peel resistance |
| Peel resistance (ISO route) | ISO 11339:2022 | Current published International Standard |
| Shear strength | ASTM D1002 / ISO 4587 | D1002 is a metal-to-metal method — see the warning below |
| Wash durability | ISO 6330:2021 | Domestic washing and drying procedures for textile testing |
| Dry-clean durability | ISO 3175-2 | A bare “ISO 3175” citation is a withdrawn edition — ask for the part number |
| Melt flow rate | ISO 1133-1:2022 | A bare “ISO 1133” citation is superseded — ask for the part number |
WARNING: Why one peel number wouldn’t have answered your question
ASTM D1002 states in its own Significance and Use section that the method is primarily comparative, and it warns that using apparent shear strength values as design-allowable stresses can lead to failure, because results vary with the joint and the bonding process.
VIEW ASTM D1876 SCOPE
ASTM D1876 is scoped the same way: it determines relative peel resistance, and direct comparison between adhesives is only valid when specimen construction and test conditions are identical.
Which means a peel figure printed with no substrate, no specimen construction and no test conditions isn’t data. It’s a decoration that looks like data, and it’s what most of this category prints when it prints anything.
// What we will do instead
01
Tell you which family the published chemistry points to for your substrate pair and service temperature
02
Name every parameter that belongs in the specification, activation band, pressure, dwell, melt viscosity, areal weight, thickness, so nothing gets agreed by omission
03
Send samples of the candidate grades so the test is run on your press, your substrates, your line speed
04
Confirm the process window, activation temperature, pressure, dwell, for the grade you actually select, against your equipment
05
Give you the figures with their test conditions attached, or tell you we don’t have them
// Why we can run that test rather than quote at you
Teng Yang keeps an in-house lab alongside the cast, blown, coating and meltblown production lines, which is what makes a sample-and-confirm answer a real offer instead of a deflection. Whereas an industry-typical reference tells you where a polymer family sits, only a trial on your substrates tells you where your grade sits.
The catch is that this takes longer than reading a number off a page. The right call depends on whether you would rather have a fast figure or a figure you can specify against.
Adhesive Film Formats, Release Paper, and How It Ships
Two rolls of the same polymer can behave completely differently on your line depending on how they’re constructed and cut. This is the part of the specification that gets decided last and causes the most trouble.
With or without release paper
Film supplied on a release liner handles differently from bare film. That liner protects the adhesive, carries it through die-cutting, and controls how the web feeds. It also has to let go cleanly at the right moment.
Release liner behaviour is a measured variable, not a detail
ASTM D5375 exists specifically to measure how strongly a release liner adheres to the adhesive, and it notes that the liner, the release coating, the adhesive, the backing and the coating weight all change the answer.
That standard is written for pressure-sensitive label stock rather than hot melt film, so it isn’t the method for our product. It’s evidence that “with or without release paper” is a real engineering variable that somebody thought was worth standardising.
The geometry you have to state
ASTM D5750 is a standard guide for the width and length of tape, and ASTM’s own note on it is telling: it is recommended where widths and lengths are stated in contracts and orders. Roll geometry is contractual language, which is why it belongs in your enquiry and not in a phone call afterwards.
Roll width
including whether you need narrow slit widths for seam work
Roll length
and how that interacts with your changeover time
Core inner diameter
your unwind has to actually accept it
Release paper
on one side, both sides, or none
Film thickness
a trade-off, not a strength dial; excess thickness carries published penalties
How the film is made determines what you can order
Teng Yang runs four production routes plus finishing, and that mix is the reason a given width, thickness or construction is available or isn’t.
Cast film
the route associated with tight thickness uniformity across the web
Blown film
the route associated with balanced properties in both directions
Coating
adhesive applied onto a carrier rather than extruded as a free film
Meltblown
the route that produces the open non-woven web form, not film
Slitting and rewinding
where your roll width, roll length and core are actually decided
That distinction matters when you ask for something non-standard: a route that can produce your construction is a different conversation from one that can’t. For the web form specifically, made on the meltblown route rather than cast or blown, the format differences are covered in our technical buyer’s guide to hot melt adhesive web.
Commercial terms: what we will not put on this page
Pricing factors, not a price
The hot melt adhesive film price youre quoted depends on the grade, the construction, the slit width and the volume. We aren’t publishing a band here, because a number without those four attached is a number you couldn’t rely on, and neither could we.
Two things we’ll give you before price: the hot melt adhesive film HS code applicable to your shipment, and the Incoterm we’re quoting against. Both change your landed cost more than a per-square-metre figure does.
What drives your quotation: polymer family · film thickness · roll width and slit count · release liner construction · order volume and call-off pattern · destination and Incoterm.
Contact for quote
send the six factors above and you get a real figure instead of a range.
Hot Melt Adhesive Film Engineering & Selection Tools
Grade Router
Analyze chemical substrates and temperature profiles to instantly match the optimal hot melt adhesive film grade for your bonding applications.
Remelt Boundary Checker
Calculate precise thermal limits and remelt boundaries of various formulations to prevent bonding failures under extreme operating conditions.
Spec Sheet Builder
Configure custom web, film, and net dimensions to generate standardized technical data sheets for enterprise procurement and verification.
[SYS-01]
What is hot melt adhesive film?
A solid thermoplastic adhesive supplied as a continuous film on a roll. Heat and pressure melt it into both substrates; on cooling it solidifies and carries the load. It’s sold in polymer families, TPU, EVA, PA, PES and PO, that differ mainly in the temperature they can serve at.
[SYS-02]
Is it a thermoplastic or a thermosetting adhesive film?
Everything on this page is thermoplastic: it re-melts on reheating, which is what makes rework possible. Much of what the market labels heat-activated adhesive film is thermosetting and cures permanently. If a supplier won’t tell you which one they’re quoting, that’s the first thing to resolve.
[SYS-03]
Is a hot melt adhesive bond permanent?
Not necessarily, and treating it as permanent is how parts fail in the field. A bond holds until the service temperature reaches the polymer’s softening band, at which point strength falls away, which is why a dark dashboard in summer has delaminated parts that passed every check at assembly. That reversibility is a feature during rework and a liability in a hot cabin. If your part can’t tolerate a bond that softens, a thermoplastic film is the wrong class of material and no grade within it will rescue you.
[SYS-04]
What is the maximum heat resistance?
It depends on the family and the grade, and any supplier answering this with the word “high-temperature” hasn’t answered it. For published family reference: EVA is usable below roughly 60–80 °C, while polyamide serves −40 to 70 °C with some compositions reaching 185 °C when they carry no load. We confirm the figure for a specific grade against your load case.
[SYS-05]
Why is my hot melt adhesive film not bonding firmly?
Usually the process window, the moisture, or the pressure, in that order. Polyamide in particular absorbs moisture that can foam during application and leave voids in the adhesive layer, so stock that has sat in humid storage will underperform stock that hasn’t, at identical press settings. Check the measured platen temperature rather than the dial before you change anything else. Our sister guide on bonding, troubleshooting and format selection walks the failure modes in detail.
[SYS-06]
Does a higher press temperature give a stronger bond?
Contrary to the common assumption on the shop floor, no, past the activation window it does the opposite. Prolonged high-temperature holding causes oxidation, molecular degradation, yellowing and carbon residue. Over-activation degrades the polymer rather than improving wet-out.
[SYS-07]
Does a thicker film give a stronger bond?
A thicker film isn’t always a stronger bond, thickness is a trade-off, not a strength dial. Published manufacturer guidance is explicit that excess thickness carries penalties. Correct thickness follows the substrate and the gap you actually have to fill.
[SYS-08]
Which film do I use on polypropylene?
Polyolefin. It’s the published family for polypropylene, which the others find difficult, the clearest case where the cheapest film isn’t the best one for the job.
[SYS-09]
Can I use hot melt adhesive film for metal?
It’s done, one of the more common enquiries we see names steel as the substrate. But metal is a bonding problem where surface preparation and the service temperature dominate the outcome, so this is a samples-and-trial conversation rather than a catalogue answer.
[SYS-10]
Do you have OEKO-TEX certification?
No. If your programme is gated on it, we’re the wrong supplier and we’ll say so at the first email rather than at the audit.
[SYS-11]
Is hot melt adhesive film environmentally friendly?
It contains no solvent, which is the whole basis on which the category makes this claim, and it’s an incomplete basis. End-of-life is the other half: adhesive residue can contaminate recycling streams, and the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive’s recyclability-by-design emphasis is already prompting some users to move away from hot melt in packaging. Solvent-free is a real advantage in your plant; it isn’t a blanket environmental verdict.
[SYS-12]
Will it bond cardboard and paper?
Yes, and it’s one of the older uses for the chemistry. EVA and polyolefin are the usual families here because the service temperature is ambient and no skin-contact certification applies. Note the recycling caveat in the question above if the pack is destined for a paper stream.
[SYS-13]
What is the shelf life and how should it be stored?
Storage is a real variable rather than a formality, particularly for polyamide, which absorbs moisture that later foams during application. We give shelf life and storage conditions for the specific grade on the quotation, alongside the construction.
[SYS-14]
Can you customise thickness, width and melting point?
That’s the normal case rather than a special request. Width, thickness, release liner construction and grade are all specified per order, which is why the quotation asks for your substrates and process before it gives you a figure.
[SYS-15]
What is the difference between hot melt adhesive film and hot melt adhesive web?
Film is continuous; web is an open nonwoven structure made on a meltblown line. Web breathes and suits porous or uneven substrates, film suits smooth full-surface bonds. The web buyer’s guide covers the format decision properly.
