What is liner?

What is liner? Browsing through our custom adhesive tape e-commerce website, it may be possible to come across this term, which could be quite obscure for those who do not have any particular experience in using adhesive tape rolls.

We talk about liners when discussing double-sided adhesive tapes, which present an adhesive substance on both sides.

But liners also have to do with special adhesive tape that, despite having a side without adhesive substances on it, still needs an extra element of protection to ensure the fast use of the tape or to ensure a long life.

Today we will see what liner is, both regarding double-sided adhesive tapes and adhesive tape in general, so that you can make the best purchase decisions for your company.

The structure of the adhesive tape

To understand what the liner is and to understand its role, it is useful to learn how regular mono-lateral adhesive tape is structured. This is tape with only one adhesive side, collected in a roll with the part equipped with glue on the inside and the smooth and non-adhesive part on the outside.

In short, tape consists of two parts, namely the support, which gives it body and strength and can be made with paper, PVC, Ppl and so on; and the adhesive part, which can be made with a mix of different substances, depending on the type of application, the degree of removability required, and so on.

Obviously, manufacturers do not want the various layers of adhesive to stick to each other when collected in the roll pending use: because of this, it is best to ensure that the surface of the support is such that it does not offer permanent or excessive adhesion because of the glue used.

It is fundamental, then, to use materials that are not very susceptible to adhesion, or using a release coating, embedded in the support, to make unrolling easy and fast.

In the case of strong double-sided tape, however, both sides are adhesive. To allow the collection of the double-sided adhesive tape around a roll, the tape is enriched with an additional element, which is not a coating embedded in the tape, but rather a separate element.

This is liner, the subject of this article, also known as release liner.

What is liner?

Before, we talked about release liner with regard to double sided adhesive tapes. It is actually a separator and removable layer, which has several functions. It prevents the tape from sticking on itself in the roll, it makes using industrial double-sided adhesive tape more practical, and keeps used adhesives effective.

Different materials are used to make release liners, depending on the type of application: generally, they are made with silicone paper or film while, in the case of die cutting operations, one might opt for polyester liners.

Liners in double-sided tape

We have described how that, typically, liner is found in industrial double-sided adhesives, which, to make it possible to use them in the first place, need an additional and removable layer. using double-sided adhesive tape with liner is very simple.

You can use the roll in all respects as if you were using regular mono-lateral adhesive tape, unrolling a strip of tape of varying length and proceeding to cut it.

This strip is then applied to the surface that you want to render adhesive – for example, on the back of a picture – and, only at that point, after applying a minimum of tension to the strip of tape, you can remove the liner.

This way, you will get a second adhesive surface, which will then work in all respects like glue, with the advantage of not dripping and allowing for very fast application, without creating any thicknesses you will need to consider.

Liner and adhesive tape

Liner is, therefore, typically found in double-sided tapes. But, on some particular occasions, as mentioned, it is possible to find liner even in adhesive tapes with only one surface presenting any adhesive.

This is the case for different types of aluminium adhesive tape, such as our aluminium tape with liner, which is used in the field of refrigeration and thermal insulation, as well as in other industrial applications.

Liner can also be used on adhesive tape rolls to improve their characteristics, such as moisture resistance during storage.