Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Tape

by Pathlie Lee Business consultant

The key to understanding tape is understanding the types of tape and for what purposes they are used. Whether it’s for wrapping a birthday present or reinforcing goods for shipment, you need to use the right type of tape get your best possible result. Let’s break down the kinds of tape, and what jobs each type is perfect for.

Classic Scotch Tape: Also known as office tape, it’s also what people mean when they go looking for tape but can’t find it. It’s generally found in the back of an office supply cabinet or kitchen drawer. It comes in clear and shiny, invisible, and double-sided.

● Shipping Tape: Also called packing tape or storage tape, this is very different from standard office tape. This kind of tape is used for packing moving boxes, or parcels for shipment. It is thicker and wider than office tape and often needs a special appliance called a tape gun to dispense it. The tape is usually shiny and ranges from an inch and a half wide to as much as 3 inches wide. However, shipping tape made using a hot melt adhesive is susceptible to extremes of temperature. Extreme cold weather can cause it to become brittle and crack, while extreme heat can loosen the grip of the glue on the container.

● Fiber or Filament Reinforced Tape: This type of tape is also called strapping tape and is used in shipping, storage, and moving applications. Made from either two layers of paper around filament or thermoplastics melted over polyester, fiberglass, hemp, or other fiber, fiber tape is used less for ceiling and more for reinforcing the shipping container. Special versions of this tape can even contain wire to make the shipping container slice-proof. It comes in a selection of widths from 1 inch wide to approximately 4 inches wide. The tape is thicker and more difficult to handle without a special dispenser.

● Duct Tape: Duct tape is – as the name suggests – tape that creates an airtight seal around HVAC ducting. The cloth-based tape is coded on one side with polyethylene resin and a sticky rubber cement style adhesive on the other. It has the advantage of sticking to even rough surfaces and creating an airtight seal. It holds up to extremes of heat and cold without delaminating.

● Masking Tape: Masking tape is a different category altogether. Typically, masking tape is used in applications such as painting and finishing to denote an area that should not be painted, such as trim that will be painted later or decorative elements that have not been applied.

What Do You Need?

Knowing which kind of tape that you need, or even having a rough idea, can help you to eliminate products that would not be helpful to your purpose. Consult with professionals who sell boxes, shipping supplies, and tape for their suggestions in setting up an area dedicated to correctly packaging and sealing your containers for shipment or storage.