Not all tapes and adhesives are created equal. Tapes and performance adhesives are often specially designed to accommodate the unique needs of applications that reach beyond the norm. Specialty tapes and adhesives incorporate specific properties into the adhesive to ensure that it will withstand the rigors and environmental factors of the intended application.
As specially made products, these adhesives command a premium price in the market. This page will explore these products and their value to a wide variety of industries and applications.
Types of Specialty Tapes and Adhesives Available
Specialty tapes and adhesives typically contain a set of specific properties that make them suitable for a particular use. These properties may include various abrasion and chemical resistance properties, strength requirements, adhesion requirements, and additional features that set them apart from common tapes.
Here are some examples of specialty tapes and the beneficial characteristics they possess:
- Glass Cloth tape is used in applications that require high temperature resistance and increased tensile strength.
- Teflon (PTFE) Coated Glass Cloth features a protective Teflon coating that improves chemical resistance, heat resistance, and improved tensile strength.
- Ultra-High Molecular Weight Tape (UHMW) tape features good heat resistance and is used for reducing vibration and noise in the joints of dynamic loads.
- Flame Spray tape offers thermal protective properties in metal or ceramic plasma spraying, arc spraying, metallizing, HVOF, and grit blasting applications.
- Teflon tape is used primarily in temperature & anti-abrasion applications.
- Kapton tapes are top shelf high temperature resistance tapes used for insulation, capacitor and transformer insulation, magnetic wire insulation, and gold leaf masking for wave soldering.
- Ultra-High Bond or Very High Bond (UHB/VHB) tapes provide an alternative to other fastening options, like rivets, spot welds and liquid adhesives.
- Anti-Skid or Anti-Slip tapes help prevent skidding or slipping on stairways, on slick floors, or in other areas that pose a high risk of slips and falls. Many also include bright yellow cross-hatching to identify an area of caution.
- Plating tape provides masking for hard chrome plating and anodizing due to its resistance to aging, acids, alkalis, and corrosive chemicals.
- EMI/RFI Shielding tapes protect components from electromagnetic and radio-frequency interference within sensitive electronics.
- Foil tapes offer moisture and extreme temperature resistance, and see broad use in HVAC and general repair applications. EMI/RFI shielding.
- Velcro is used in a broad variety of apparel, military, transportation, personal care, medical, construction, and packaging industry applications. This material is also known more generally as Hook and Loop.
- Conductive Adhesive tapes conduct electricity and are resistant to heat.