How To Use Packing Tape

A Consummate Guide to Packing Tape

Nosotros explain what packing tape is used for, explore the different types, and explain how to use a tape dispenser.

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What is Packing Tape?

Packing tape is a familiar stationery staple. It is a sturdy tape used to seal packages, cardboard boxes, and storage cartons.

Flexible and hard-wearing, it is also known every bit parcel or packaging record. Scotch record is another normally used term, especially in Due north America. Notwithstanding, Scotch is really a brand name, owned past the 3M Corporation.

Package tape is usually brown just transparent or coloured tapes are likewise available. It is a pressure-sensitive product, pregnant its cocky-adhesive properties are activated once pressed into place. Well-nigh packaging record is made from the plastic polymers polyester or polypropylene (sometimes shortened to polyprop).

Multiple lengths, widths and thicknesses are bachelor, simply the about mutual include:

100m x 500mm
50m x 25mm
50m x 500mm

What is Packing Record Used for?

Packaging tape is widely used both by consumers at home and in commercial settings such as warehouses, factories and shops.

Thank you to its strength and durability, packaging tape is undoubtedly the best choice for sealing or resealing moving boxes - indeed any cardboard box used for transporting or storing bulky items. It is applied to the cardboard box joints to secure and seal it during transit and delivery.

It is besides ideal for sealing parcels and packaging, reinforcing containers, and strapping together multiple boxes, packs or supplies on factory pallets.

Packing Tape Types

Packaging tape is bachelor in several different types, each suited to different tasks. To make your pick, consider the chore you lot accept in mind and weigh up whether information technology volition be used indoors or outdoors, likewise every bit the weight of the items to be stored or conveyed.

Some manufacturers as well offer personalised package tape. Custom color branding can exist used to highlight business logos or to promote products. Suppliers usually provide an easy-to-use online ordering system to upload branding and graphics and speedily create a custom parcel record blueprint.

Here are some of the principal varieties of packing record:

Brown Packing Tape

Brown bundle record is the about familiar and by some margin, the biggest-selling. Used for bundling, sealing and wrapping, it is the ideal all-purpose tape for jobs that crave strong and reliable seals.

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Clear Bundle Tape

Clear Parcel Tape

Clear parcel tape is simply packaging tape made from transparent plastic. Generally made from polypropylene, this is a versatile, general-purpose tape that offers the advantage of visually unobtrusive sealing.

The brand proper noun Scotch tape is sometimes used as a synonym for transparent record, but in fact, manufacturer 3M also makes brownish Scotch packaging tape aslope adhesive tape in other colours.

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Coloured Parcel Record

Coloured Parcel Tape

Some manufacturers offer coloured packing tape - for example, white, pink, green, orange and yellow. These are ideal for easy colour coding in warehouses, factories and other commercial environments, quickly classifying particular pallets and parcels for storage or processing purposes.

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Paper Packet Tape

Paper Parcel Tape

Newspaper parcel record is a more traditional product which has returned to favour in recent years. It features gummed, water-activated adhesive on tear-resistant paper. The adhesive activates when wet has been practical using a special dispenser, creating a particularly strong bond in which the glue soaks right through into the neighbouring cardboard and blends with this textile, making it highly resistant to tampering.

As this eco-friendly tape is made from newspaper, information technology is both biodegradable and fully recyclable.

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Fragile or Printed Parcel Tape

Fragile Parcel Tape

Fragile parcel record is an centre-catching, sturdy plastic wrapping textile which performs one elementary, specialist part. It declares that the contents of the packet are delicate and should be handled with intendance. Delicate parcel tape is a familiar sight in mail service offices but is too used in commercial settings which routinely ship products requiring careful handling.

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Vinyl Packaging Tape

PVC or vinyl packaging record features greater sticking strength and tear resistance than standard polypropylene tape, but it is no harder to apply manually or via a dispenser. It too produces less dissonance when applied and it can withstand low temperatures without the agglutinative becoming inert, making it the platonic choice for utilise in refrigerated environments.

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Reinforced Parcel Tape

Heavy-duty packaging tape offers additional strength for demanding jobs. Reinforcement is provided by the addition of glass filaments which make the tape much harder to rip and also provide greater sticking power. You tin can use strong packing tape with metals and plastics equally well equally cardboard and paper.

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How to Use a Packing Tape Dispenser

While packaging tape can be practical manually, by simply pulling it from the whorl and and then cut to the required length, it is easy for the record to twist and tangle. Record dispensers and record guns are commonly used tools to avert wastage and ensure a smooth stick.

Packet tape dispensers are plastic cartridges which hold rolls gear up for utilise, with the stop extended towards the cutting machinery or serrated border where information technology rests until employ. They are simple devices. Users pull the record forrard and and then pull downwards vigorously to cut the tape to the required length.

Hand-held tape dispensers are often called record guns. These work on the same principle - larger rolls of tape are stock-still onto a revolving wheel, with the record end extended to the cutting edge. Users grip the device using the big, tactile pistol-grip handle and apply the tape directly to the target surface.

This explains how to load and use a package tape gun:

Gear up the tape onto the bicycle, making sure information technology is correctly aligned
Extend the tape end to the cutting edge - typically by threading it firmly through a dispensing slot below the cutting mechanism. Brand sure the tape is smooth and has not twisted or formed air bubbles
If the gun features a pressure-adjusting handle, use that to ensure the tape is taut and gear up for utilise
Press the tape to the box or package and pull forth the surface
Cutting the record

For high volume professional use, tape dispensing machines are deployed on automated packaging lines, often with special depression racket tape.

Packing Tape Brands

Leading brands of loftier-quality sticky tape include:

FAQs

Why is My Packing Record Not Sticking to Boxes?

There are 2 reasons why your packing tape may not be sticking to boxes:

Your box is fabricated from a significant quantity of recycled cardboard. This often has a rougher surface which resists adhesion past tape
Your box is dusty or has oil or grease on its surface. These substances besides interfere with adhesion

If it is not possible to clean the surface, attempt applying boosted record. Failing that, replace the box!

What is the Best Packing Tape Available in the UK?

That depends entirely on the tasks for which you lot need the tape. The best and most cost-effective tape for one job will not be the best tape for some other. 3M Scotch packing tape is amongst the biggest selling brands in the UK.

How to Get Parcel Tape Off Glass and Plastic

Packing record can go out sticky balance on household items. To remove this, utilize any household oil (e.g. mineral, olive, or lemon oil) to a cloth with a strong only non annoying texture - for example, terry cloth - and rub. Even penetrating oils like WD-40 will do the pull a fast one on.

Packaged glue residue removers are too bachelor.