Explanation of Adhesive Tape Manufacturing process

Adhesive tapes are a combination of a particular component and an adhesive sheet used to attach or join things rather than using screws, nails, or welding. Using adhesive tapes instead of mechanical fasteners allows you to employ lower-temperature applications that simplify production operations. 

Sticky tapes can safeguard your surface area by eliminating the need to harm it just to install screws or bolts. BOPP adhesive tape making machines are good alternatives for tape manufacturing. 

Common Adhesive Tape Materials

Several types of sticky tape include water-activated, heat-activated, and pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSA). The PSTC, or Pressure Sensitive Tape Council, defines PSAs as a continuous flexible strip of paper, fabric, metal, or plastic covered on one or both sides with a permanently sticky adhesive at room temperature that sticks to various surfaces. On a roll shape, just mild finger pressure is required, and there is no phase shift.

What distinguishes PSA tape from other types of adhesives is that activation with any solvent, water, or even heat is no longer required to exert a strong adhesive force on a variety of materials such as paper, plastic, glass, wood, or even metal. Although the adhesive used for PSA tapes is similar in that it adheres well, is sticky, and resists stress, it is quite different. Each type of tape has advantages and disadvantages, whether it is based on rubber, acrylic, or silicone adhesives.

Rubber

Rubber is the earliest adhesive manufactured from natural rubber, but it requires a resin to become an adhesive. Rubber adhesive systems are commonly utilized in interior applications with minimal stress requirements, such as masking, duct, carton sealing, and lament tape.

They stick effectively to substrates with low surface energy and are designed for easy removal. Furthermore, they are not tacky. To make them, tackier resins are required. Here are the two primary types of rubber adhesives:

Natural Rubber

These natural rubber adhesives are generally high in molecular weight and include lengthy polymer chains. They often cling to low surface energy (LSE) surfaces, displaying clean removability and excellent shear. Aside from being less costly, natural rubbers have a strong initial tack, whereas acrylic takes longer to cure. However, they have low-temperature resistance and aging qualities.

Synthetic Rubber

Synthetic rubber is usually referred to as "hot melt" adhesive. This sticky tape is made of thermoplastic and has a short polymer chain or low molecular weight. It is more customizable than natural rubber adhesives, providing superior LSE adhesion with more tack and some temperature or UV aging resistance. Synthetic rubber is ideal for sealing cartons and packages due to its great stickiness and shear resilience.

Acrylic

Interestingly, colorless acrylic adhesives outperform rubber adhesives. This is due to acrylics' resistance to oxidation and UV light exposure, which gives years of UV light protection. Acrylic adhesive systems are employed in both indoor and outdoor applications that require long-term bonding solutions. Acrylics are inherently sticky, and the tackier property helps to improve their quick-stick capabilities. However, acrylic adhesives are nearly twice as expensive as rubber adhesives. They are also less effective than natural rubber on harder-to-adhere surfaces, and they take a long time to cure. There are two primary types of acrylic adhesives:

Silicone

Silicone adhesives provide many years of service, but they are the most costly type of glue. They have a strong thermal tolerance and can withstand extreme climatic conditions. Despite silicone adhesives' bonding power, they are frequently misunderstood as having poor sticking potential due to their low initial bind strength.

Tapes with silicone adhesive solutions are typically used in sensitive applications where adhesives are subjected to severe temperatures or conditions. This includes the electrical industry, where managing temperature is challenging. Furthermore, they cost twice as much as acrylics, but like the latter, they may be applied on the skin, making them popular in medical applications.

BOPP Adhesive Tape Making Machine

The science of sticky tape manufacture begins with polymerization. This indicates that the adhesive structure and polymer or molecule chains are joined during the chemical process. The adhesives are prepared for rapid and thin application to the desired backing material with the help of a BOPP adhesive tape making machine. However, the adhesive determines exactly how this occurs.

The adhesive mass, backside treatment agent, primer, and other key components are either created in-house or acquired. The tape base element is then coated with these components, and the solvent is removed by drying before being looped around in the shape of a roll. The coated roll is then cut to the required width and packaged. 

The transfer of PRTR chemicals other than the solvents (both liquid and solid) used for the base material, adhesive mass, primer, backside treatment agent, and so on occurred during the manufacturing process, such as coating, rewinding, and slitting of tape rolls. 

Adhesive Tape Manufacturing Process

The following is a standard step-by-step technique for producing sticky tape using a BOPP Adhesive Tape Making Machine: 

1. Polypropylene film in unwinder.

The adhesive tape manufacturing process begins with rolls of a plastic film known as polypropylene. 

The rolls are fed through a machine known as an unwinder. Workers then place a strip of adhesive splicing tape along the end of each row, allowing them to join one roll after another, resulting in an unbroken feed to the manufacturing line. 

2. Unwinding Rolls into Splicing Tape

When the roll is entirely unwound, the end attaches to the splicing tape at the beginning of the following row. When it rolls unwound, its end will adhere to the start of the next, and so on. 

3. Automatic Tension Adjuster.

An automated tension adjustment ensures that the machine pulls the film evenly to prevent tearing.

4. Application of Solvent

The unwinder also applies solvent to the film's surface. This keeps the film from sticking when being unrolled. To make this film into a tape, the machine coats one side with a hot adhesive called hot melt, which is manufactured from a variety of substances.

The synthetic rubber provides flexibility, UV protection protects it from drying out and discoloring, and an antioxidant inhibits aging. The inclusion of synthetic resin makes it sticky while coloring oil gives color options, such as a tan for packing tapes.

5. Preheated Holding Tank

The hot melt is then loaded into a warmed holding tank, which maintains a temperature of 390 degrees Fahrenheit to keep the tape from solidifying. The tank delivers glue to a machine known as the blower. Then brush away any excess and roll the film. 

6. Use of Cooling Roller

A cooling roller with a black coating on top rapidly hardens it. A computerized sensor provides a uniform layer of adhesive. Otherwise, it will automatically instruct the pump to modify the output if there is none. If the sticky tape is double-sided, a separate layer is added when winding. The process is then repeated to coat the adhesive tape's other side. 

7. Rewinder Machine.

A rewinder machine rolls tape into spools. Remember the unwinder, which joined the rolls together? The rewinder machine unsliced them. When all are filled, a knife is used to split the adhesive tape at the splice point, allowing winding to proceed in the following step. 

8. Slitter Machine.

The tape on only one of the produced spools would cover an average of 85 football fields. The spool has a series of sharp razor blades known as slitters, which can cut the five-foot-wide tape into numerous strips. A shipping tape, for example, is nearly 2 inches wide, allowing you to acquire 31 strips per spool. 

9. Finished Tape Rolls

Each strip is wound around a tilled cardboard core, and the end is sealed with the tab. The length of tape per roll varies based on the customer's needs. As the BOPP Adhesive Tape Making Machine ejects the finished tape rolls from the next batch of cardboard courses, it heads to the packing section.

10. Quality Control Check.

Before packing and shipping, producers ensure that their adhesive tapes go through a quality control check, testing a sample roll from each spool.