Transfer tapes: One of the best-kept tape secrets
History
Ever heard of a hidden champion? You know, those products that aren’t very well known but consistently perform?
Well, tesa has its own hidden champion…
And it’s quietly holding substrates together in almost every imaginable place, but you wouldn’t know it… well, unless you knew it.
This little-known hero is actually everywhere! But until now, only insiders have known where to look for it.
So welcome, all of you… come on in!
Today we’re going to make you a tesa insider.
And introduce you to our hidden champion.
Is It Double-Sided Tape or Transfer Tape?
We’ll go ahead and tell you straight up… our champion is transfer tape.
But the two – double-sided and transfers – can be a little confusing because they look a lot alike. After all, touching the adhesive feels the same – sticky on your thumb and forefinger. But a transfer tape is different because it doesn’t need a carrier between the adhesive layers to, you know, carry the stickiness.
Here’s an example. With our tesa® 4965 – which is a double-sided tape – we coat an adhesive onto both the top and bottom sides of a PET carrier, we'll protect one side of the adhesive by putting that familiar red liner over the top and then we wind that up into the roll of tape you’re used to seeing. With transfer tapes, there’s no need for a carrier of any kind. They’re basically a super cool adhesive, think similar to rubber cement, that’s spread on a liner.
And they’re used in soooo many industries. More on that in just a moment...
What You Need To Know About Transfer Tapes
Transfer tapes are stable.
Simple as that. Even though you could describe them as “rubber cement on a liner,” the special adhesive doesn’t flow like rubber cement, so it’s more consistent and stable. When you peel the liner off, it doesn’t ooze out and flow like liquid glue either, so you don’t have to worry about not being able to control it, it stays where you place it. It’s a stable adhesive on a liner that has a wide range of uses.
Transfer tapes have a ton of advantages.
The transfer adhesives tesa has right now, including our locally developed and produced tesa® 881xx and the tesa® 882xx families, offer high-shear/high-temperature performance or are specifically designed for low surface energy (LSE) substrates. The full assortment provides various thicknesses, an advantage for keeping costs down if a thinner thickness is required. The transfer adhesives are awesome for general purpose – lamination and bonding of various substrates.
And perhaps most importantly, our transfer tapes are designed specifically for our converting partners who specialize in lamination of flexible substrates, including foam, felt, shoddy and many more …
tesa Transfer tapes tell a great sustainability story.
And who doesn’t love a great story?! Especially when it has to do with taking care of the planet we call home.
For this, we saved the best for last. tesa transfer tapes are:
• Water-based acrylic: This means they’re environmentally friendly because no harmful solvents are used in production.
• Solvent free: Free of the harmful chemicals that pollute our air, water, and soil — the same chemicals that cause disease and disrupt natural ecosystems.
• Crafted with low volatile organic compounds (VOCs): Which means they’re less likely to cause harm to people or the planet.
Didn’t we tell you it was a great sustainability story?!
And before we wrap up, here’s that quick tour we promised…
Some industries that our hidden champion – transfer tapes – support include:
Automotive
Check out the mounting foams on the inside of your car. Look around at the seats, the sound dampening foam for the stereo system, and any other lightweight mounting you might see. Transfer tapes are what you can’t see… holding it all together.
Membrane Switches
Next time you go fill up with gas, notice the keypad on the gas pump. Or at home, pay attention to the control pad on your washing machine. If you’re in a medical setting, notice the controls on the medical devices. Again, transfer tapes are doing their job – keeping everything intact. And there’s more…
Signage
This one is huge! Our hidden champion is everywhere in the signage industry – hotels, airplanes, office buildings, schools, stores (Point of Purchase) and industrial settings. Like hotel room numbers (remember hotels?) or classroom numbers in your child’s school. You name it, it’s there… holding lightweight signs in place wherever it goes.
Protective Cases
The foam in protective cases that store camera equipment or anything else that needs protection? You guessed it! Layer by layer. Different shapes. Different depths. Held together by none other than our hidden gem…
Third-hand Applications
So many industries have specialists that sometimes need a third hand to get their jobs done. Our quiet but strong transfer-tape hero acts just like that extra hand we sometimes need to hold something in place until a secondary mounting solution – a rivet or a screw (or, ahem, our tesa® ACXplus) – can fasten it more permanently.
Basically, for lightweight mounting of just about any kind, transfer tapes are the solution. Need we say more?