What makes duct tape stick

In response to criticism that duct tape does not function well at extreme temperatures, manufacturers are creating more advanced formulations specially designed to withstand severe heat and cold fluctuations. For the first time, formal standards are being created specifically for duct tape to be used on flexible duct work. Tape manufacturers support this plan because they believe that certification by Underwriters Laboratories a product safety testing organization will boost their sales.

Berg, Jim, and Tim Nyberg. The Duct Tape Book. Satas, Dontas. Handbook of Pressure Sensitive Adhesives. Second edition. Van Nostrand Reinhold, Baird, Christine V.

Harder, Nick. Turpin, Joanna R. Underwriters Laboratories Inc. Toggle navigation. Three-roll pressure sensitive tape calender. Two-roll adhesive calender. Polyethylene and adhesive calender. Calender for fabric tape coated with polyethylene. Periodicals Baird, Christine V.

Other Underwriters Laboratories Inc. Other articles you might like:. Also read article about Duct Tape from Wikipedia. User Contributions: 1. Comment about this article, ask questions, or add new information about this topic: Name:. E-mail: Show my email publicly. For more than 40 years we have been solving tape challenges around the world by engineering tapes for specific applications,….

Did you know that our double-sided carpet tape is used by the largest exhibition and trade show companies in the…. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn. May 9, Duct Tape. Wet surfaces: While duct tape is water resistant, it should only be used for emergency leak repairs. Adding more to adhesive tape.

Find tape Close your search. Is the process physical or chemical? So, there is a combination of the molecules in the glue material and also of the substrate. The simpler answer With all the adhesion and cohesion properties, you must have got a little confused about what really happens.

What the tape specialists say The experts from the tape industry also believe that there is no chemical reaction or bonding that takes place in the stickiness of the adhesive tape. I need some help. First Name Last Name Company. User Distributor. How can we help you today? The oppositely charged molecules of the adhesive and the substrate, on contact, form physical bonds, augmenting the strength of the wetting-based adhesion.

Adhesion is only part of the equation, though. The beauty of adhesive tape lies as much in its design as in its bond. Every time we pull some tape off a roll -- to wrap a present, hang macaroni art, temporarily fix a leaky pipe or seal a package for shipping -- we probably miss the genius of the roll itself.

Most notably, why does the adhesive stick to the backing and to the substrate but not to itself? Were tape not in roll form, it would likely be somewhat difficult to toss in a junk drawer. And "adhesive" that is not adhesive tape is usually glue -- drippy and permanent. It's the tape part that makes the product so neat, so compact and so easy. The process of making tape is fairly uniform. All adhesive tape has four components [source: ACS ]. The layers are applied in large sheets, which are finally rolled up and cut into the 1-, 2- or 3-inch-wide rolls of tape you buy at the store.

The final coating -- the release -- emphasizes an interesting distinction in the world of stickiness: adhesion versus cohesion. In adhesion , one type of molecule is sticking to another type of molecule; in cohesion , one type of molecule is sticking to itself. Tape uses both [source: Scientific American ]. The molecules of the adhesive stick to the molecules of the substrate, or adhere, but they also stick to each other, or cohere.

If this weren't the case, the adhesive substance wouldn't hold together. The release coating prevents cohesion at the surface of the tape so it can be unrolled easily. And so, what began as masking tape and some very happy auto painters is now an industry unto itself. Adhesive tapes have wrapped the metal skeletons of blimps to prevent corrosion. They've insulated at least one lunar lander and helped Apollo 11 astronauts carry out some on-the-moon repairs to their lunar module's fender [sources: ACS , NASA ].

They hold rearview mirrors onto cars and keep millions of scrapbookers from tearing their hair out when their placement is a millimeter off [source: 3M ]. In searching for more information about the tape used by NASA to insulate a lunar lander specially developed for the purpose, with the ability to remain sticky through an enormous temperature range , I also found pictures of the Apollo lander patched together with plain old duct tape, and came across an interesting phenomenon: Conspiracy theorists have decided the presence of duct tape on the Apollo lander confirms the moon landing was a hoax.

It's a probably a common viewpoint, that tools we have lying around the house couldn't possibly be used to get men to the moon. And in this case, it was actually just a quick repair to the lander's fender, which fell off during the mission.