Unless we narrow down the field to specific types of Adhesive Tape Products the places where adhesive tapes are being used and the purposes they are fulfilling would indeed take many pages to put them down on paper. There are just so many different types of backing and adhesive around today.
Early Days
Back in 1845, when a surgeon called Horace Day, found a way to make strips of cloth stick to a human body by using a latex rubber adhesive, this was possibly the only adhesive tape product around and it only had one real application. However, by the 1920’s the field was enlarging.
The automobile spray painters were probably the first to take Dr Day’s concept and apply it to something else. They needed something to mask the areas that were being sprayed with different colored paint (so as to obtain a crisp seamless separation). They had tried using adhesive surgical tape but without any real success. Then, in 1925, the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (later to become 3M) came up with a solution in the form of light brown paper tape with an especially tacky rubber based adhesive on one side. The paper did not absorb the solvents in the paint and the tape was easy to peel off after spraying. Now there were two distinctly different Adhesive Tape Products on the market and people were quick to find non-automotive uses for the paper backed masking tape.
Helped by improvements in adhesive technology (especially the introduction of synthetic polymer based adhesives) the basic masking tape began to evolve. A major change came about in the 1930’s when a transparent cellophane (made from regenerated cellulose) was introduced and became the ever popular Scotch® (3M Brand) range of Adhesive Tape Products that you could see through (very important if the tape is being used to stick back together something like a torn paper page).
Today
Most Adhesive Tape Products use what we call “pressure sensitive” adhesive so that application only requires light (finger) pressure. They have usually retained that “tackiness” of the original tapes in order to make them easier to peel off if required. (Would you use a Band Aid® {Johnson & Johnson Trade Name} if it became permanently stuck onto your body?).
The backing materials in current use include textiles, metal foils, plastic films, rubber foam and even ptfe. Different laminated compositions are chosen with respect to the reasons and conditions under which “things” are to be stuck together with one of the many available Adhesive Tape Products. Plus, many of them are now available with the adhesive on both sides!
Engineered Materials Inc. is both a stockist and a 3M approved converter for adhesive tape products. Take a look at their website at engineeredmaterialsinc.com to see the scope of how they can solve your “sticky” problems.
