Understanding carton sealing tape

Understanding carton sealing tape

While undeniably a simple product, many industrial consumers do not understand the basics of carton sealing tape. At its core, pressure sensitive carton sealing tape is polypropylene film coated on both sides. One side is coated with adhesive (wound to the inside of the roll) while the other side is coated with a release agent to stop the tape from sticking to itself when wound onto the roll. When the thickness of a tape is measured, it’s a measure of the total thickness of these three layers together.

Polypropylene backing

It’s important not to confuse a tape’s thickness for tensile strength. The tensile strength of tape products is based solely on the polypropylene film which is often referred to as “backing”. The thicker the polypropylene film, the better the tensile strength – regardless of adhesive. Many consumers mistakenly think that a tape’s thickness is akin to its strength, but differing adhesives and release coatings are accounted for in thickness while not actually adding strength. Therefore, for application where break strength matters, it’s important to consider a tape’s tensile strength and the gauge of the polypropylene film, rather than the overall thickness.

Adhesive Types

Similarly, it’s important to understand that a tape’s adhesion rating is based on the type and quantity of adhesive applied to the polypropylene “backing”. There are two primary types of adhesive used with carton sealing tapes – hot melt and aqueous acrylic. Hot melt adhesive is made from rubber in natural or synthetic form. It has long been viewed as a preferable product due to its super holding power and “quick grab”; bonding with corrugated fibers upon contact. By contrast, acrylic adhesive takes longer to “set-up” - achieving its maximum holding power longer after application. Because of hot melt’s superior adhesion properties, all hand length and machine length carton sealing tapes provided by Packaging Peddler are hot melt products.