What is adhesive tape made of? Technical composition

What is adhesive tape made of? What is the adhesive used to close packages composed of? It is well known that the market offers a very wide range of adhesive tape, with extremely different characteristics from one another.

There is the classic personalised packaging adhesive tape, used to close boxes; but there is also paper tape used by painters of all kinds for masking operations, as well as double-sided adhesive tape for industrial applications, Electrical insulation tape, and so on.

Each of these rolls has a different technical composition, having to respond to very different needs, such as strength, grip, and so on.

Understanding what the technical composition of classic adhesive tape is, however, makes it easier, then, to guess what is the composition of the different, specific types of tape as well.

Let’s have a look at what the normal packaging adhesive tape contains, and then deepen our knowledge on the technical composition of a few specific types.

What is inside tape?

We all know what normal packaging tape looks like. It is an extremely thin film, so thin as to suggest that there may be only one layer of material inside of it. In reality, things are a little different: in every adhesive tape there are at least four different layers.

The first layer is what you see, the outer and upper layer: it is the release layer, which has the function of ensuring effective and rapid unfolding of the tape.

This layer, therefore, is needed to prevent the adhesive tape from sticking to itself permanently. The second layer is the support once, and is what characterizes the very nature of this tool. The support can be made with different materials: paper, PVC, or PPL.

The support determines the technical characteristics of the adhesive tape in its elasticity, elongation, tear, and so on.

One might think that the next layer would be the adhesive. But that is not the case: between the support and the adhesive there is, in fact, another layer, the primer, which has the function of anchoring the support material to the adhesive layer, to make sure that they do not separate, thereby making the packaging tape completely ineffective.

Finally, there is adhesive layer, which can be made with different substances according to the needs in terms of its tightness, resistance to thermal excursion, noise when unrolling, sustainability, and so on.

This is the composition of typical adhesive tape. There are also special cases, with tapes which have different layering: this is obviously the case for double-sided adhesive tape, as well as special tapes for professional and industrial uses.

Technical composition of adhesive tape: the support

The technical composition of two layers determines the final characteristics of adhesive tape. Let’s have a look at the technical composition of the support and the composition of the adhesive layer.

Let’s consider packaging tape: adhesive tape to close boxes typically has a PPL or PVC support.

In recent years, however, more and more types of tape for the closing of cardboard boxes have been manufactured with paper supports, especially for reasons related to the sustainability of these products.

A support made from cellulose – even better if obtained from recycled paper – in fact, makes it possible to obtain adhesive tape with a decidedly reduced environmental impact.

But it must be said that paper is not the only alternative to plastic supports. In fact, there are also bio-films, or films derived from organic products, which can be used to make extremely resistant adhesive tape supports, with an environmental impact close to zero.

Technical composition of the tape: the adhesive layer

Finally, the last layer of our roll of adhesive tape: that is, the part which actually holds the glue. This is what distinguishes an adhesive roll from a simple strip of paper or film.

The choice of the specific adhesive to be used depends on the consideration of several factors. How powerful should the adhesive tape’s grip be?

A tape used to glue a sheet of paper to the door of a refrigerator does not require the grip strength of American cloth tape, or a tape used to close heavy boxes.

What temperatures will it have to withstand? Some products are exposed to both very high and very low temperatures, and normal adhesive may be ineffective at these extremes.

Will the adhesive tape need to be removed without leaving any residue? Will the adhesive tape have to be used without creating any noise during unrolling? And, would you like to use an environmentally friendly packaging tape, with low environmental impact?

Depending on these factors, it will be necessary to consider different types of adhesive substances, from hot-melt rubber, natural rubber (such as caoutchouc) and water-based acrylic rubber.