Aluminium tape and heat. What temperatures can it withstand?

There are applications where normal adhesive tape can do nothing, or almost nothing. The performance of this tool can be influenced by several factors, beginning, for example from the type of surface, which can be either smooth or rough, more or less reactive to adhesive action.

Other factors may include humidity, exposure to UV rays, the presence of mechanical stress, and of course the temperature. As long as you work in contexts where temperature is at room level, then, you will have no issues: all regular adhesive tape rolls are designed to give their best in these situations.

As temperatures increase, however, the strength of glues normally used to manufacture tapes’ adhesive films lessens, slowly losing grip.

And this is a big issue in all those cases where temperatures are typically high: think, for example, of plumbing and heating systems, pipes carrying hot air or water, or pipes inside which the smoke produced by a stove runs through.

In these situations, normal adhesive tape isn’t useful. So, what tool should you use to seal and secure, for example, the joints located inside a heating system pipe? The perfect ally in such cases is aluminium tape.

But how much temperature can aluminium tape withstand? Let’s have a look together.

An example: the temperature of domestic boiler pipes

To understand what temperatures aluminium adhesive tape used to seal pipes can withstand, consider a regular boiler, which might be found in your apartment. Though it might not reach very high temperatures, they are still far above environmental ones.

Water supplying radiators which heat rooms should, in fact, be kept between 60 and 70 °C (140 – 158 °F), not least of all because, below this threshold, it may creates condensation that, in the long run, could corrode the pipes themselves (wherein, should they be any higher, there would be an unnecessary waste of energy, resulting in a senseless rise in your bills).

Water intended for sanitary use, and thus flowing to taps, should always be kept below 50 °C (122 °F), to avoid endangering the user and reducing the formation of limestone inside the boiler, pipes, and taps.

Therefore, the most minimal and simplest use of aluminium tape could be said to be on ordinary boilers’ pipes. But what temperatures can this tape withstand?

Aluminium tape at a glance

Aluminium tape stands out from all kinds of regular adhesive tape because it is designed to withstand very high temperatures in every way.

This is true for the support, i.e., for the aluminium tape which shapes the tool, and it also applies to the adhesive, i.e., the film created by a mixture of glue located below the support.

Both of these elements are created with the precise goal of offering high adhesion and, at the same time, great heat resistance. It must be said, however, that aluminium tape, in addition to being able to withstand heat radiation without any issues, is also resistant to moisture, atmospheric agents, and UV rays.

What temperature can aluminium tape withstand?

As you can discover by browsing through the pages of our professional adhesive tapes e-commerce, there are different types of adhesive aluminium tape. In this category, in fact there, can also be located tapes that aren’t made of aluminium, but rather metallic PPL.

These are the “younger brothers” of aluminium models, which make it possible for them to be used at medium-high temperatures at a lower cost. Metallised polypropylene models can withstand up to 80 °C (176 °F), which excludes them from many industrial applications for which it is necessary to wrap the aluminium tape on itself from the get-go.

Our aluminium with liner, for example, is made with a natural aluminium support, with a thickness of 70 my, and can withstand up to 120 °C (248 °F): making it perfect for sealing and securing joints on pipes of different system types. Buying even stronger aluminium tape is, however, also possible.

The model with a liner 100 my thick can withstand up to 150 °C (302 °F), and has an UL certification for flame retardant action as well.