Our team partnered up with Christopher Anderson, a Product Developer for tesa, to learn more about how tape is made – and some of the important questions to ask when developing a new product.

Understanding how tape is made:

To create a new tape, developers begin the process by understanding the customer’s needs and expectations. Some important questions include the following: 

1. What is the application?
2. Is it temporary or permanent?
3. What materials will need to be adhered to?
4. What environment conditions are expected during application and use?
5. What are the critical characteristics that the tape must exhibit?
6. How will the material be processed (converting, manual or automated application)?

Its essential that development activities focus on producing products that meet the needs of both a performance and price level. Therefore, one of the last questions will, be what is the target price?

How does tape stick? And how do you know what type of adhesive to use?

Tapes rely on adhesive to hold the materials together in a functional manner. Adhesives are non-metallic substances that bind surfaces together by bonding attraction between the adhesive and the adhesion. The adhesion between an adhesive and a surface depends on the attraction between the molecular structure of the material and the adhesive and the ability of the adhesive to maximize contact area with the surface. It is much easier to remove a masking tape from sandpaper due to the lower degree of contact between the sandpaper and the adhesive.

When it comes to tapes, the cohesion of the adhesive is determined at the time of production. Cohesion allows tape to stay in place, support loads, seal packages, and, where required, support residue-free removability. If you were to have a tape roll that was lacking adhesive cohesion, it would be like having a strip of plastic with honey applied to the surface - sticky but without benefit.

The best practice would be to perform an application relevant test to find the best solution for a given application.

What are the different options for tape backing?

There are endless possibilities when it comes to backing materials. The list includes paper, polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, polyester, polyimide, foams of polyethylene, cloths of a range of materials, and even backing-free options.

Backings are important because they add additional characteristics to the tape. These characteristics include abrasion resistance, shock resistance, electrical insulation, conformability, tensile strength, temperature resistance and many more.

How are customers involved? And how do we know what tape is right for you?

Our customers are involved in the early stage of the process. We want to understand specific customer needs and select the most appropriate product. Our Application Specialist team will work with you, as well as our manufacturing partners, to find the best solution.

How can Bron Tapes help with your next product?

Our 45 years of experience in the tape industry gives us the opportunity and product knowledge to find the right solution for our customers. If we don't have an existing product, we will work with our valued manufacturing partners, like tesa, to create one specifically suited for our customers application.