Another important property of a PSA is its resistance to creep. This property is specified by the customer, and depends on the field of application. PSAs are expected to resist shearing forces during a very short period at high temperatures (as when masking tapes hold masking paper during a curing process), or over a very long period at room temperature (as when objects are fixed to a wall using double-sided adhesive tape).
The higher the molecular weight of the base polymer or the crosslinking density, the lower the creep. It must be noted, however, that there are practical limits as molecular mobility is an important requirement for wetting ability during build-up of the bond, thus for the adhesive properties of a PSA and last, but not least, for its longterm durability.
46 I 5 Chemistry and Properties of Adhesives and Primers