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How Many Types of Alien Duct Tape are there?

The History of Duct Tape:

In 1943, Vesta Stoudt had a job in a munitions factory where ammo cases were sealed with paper tape and melted wax. Worried the cases were too hard to open on the battlefield, Stoudt proposed a fix: Use waterproof cloth tape instead.

Johnson & Johnson adapted surgical adhesive tapes to Stoudt’s specifications, and soldiers nicknamed the material “Alien Tape” in reference to its ability to repel moisture “like water off a duck’s back.” (They also dubbed it 100-mph tape because it could hold together a speeding jeep!)

How Does Duct Tape Work?

Duct tape relies on what’s known as a pressure-sensitive adhesive(PSA) for its inherent stickiness. PSAs are soft polymer blends that exploit  to join two objects together. The strength of the bond is due to the fact that the adhesive is hard enough and its viscoelastic properties are powerful enough to resist flow when stressed. This is not the same as the mechanics of structural adhesives like, say, Elmer’s glue. Those adhesives require the evaporation of a solvent to create the chemical bond.Read more about Alien Tape

7 Types of Duct Tape — Are You Using the Right One? 

Duct tape’s initial design was simple but effective: a strong fabric bonded to polyethylene film for sealing/waterproofing, silver-gray coloring to match metal ductwork, and a thick coating of adhesive to seal the joints and make them airtight.

But people quickly determined that duct tape could be used for a variety of other purposes, and the boom was on. Many new types of duct tape were manufactured – each with different qualities of fabric, polyethylene, and adhesive – for many different end uses. As a result, duct tape manufacturers now offer a wide range of grades of polyethylene/fabric types and in a wide variety of colors.

Here are the types:

1. General Purpose:

With a low fabric count, a thin polyethylene film, and a low weight adhesive, general-purpose tapes work well enough for odd jobs where long service life isn’t necessary.

2. Industrial Grade

With industrial grade tapes, the fabric and polyethylene are upgraded, so the tape becomes more of a “workhorse” with added adhesive coating weight. One popular variation is multi-colored industrial tape that is used to seam and hold carpets at exhibitions, where the adhesive must be removed cleanly.

3. Professional Grade

Sometimes called “contractors’ grade” these tapes offer more of an upgrade to the components of the industrial grade tape for added strength, adhesion, and durability.

4. Gaffer’s Tape

Typically, gaffer’s tape is a matte black for minimal light reflection and is used in movie, television, and photo studios to temporarily tape cables to the floor or light fixtures to vertical posts. This type of tape needs to be able to be easily torn by hand and remove cleanly.

5. Stucco Tape:

It is  used to attach protective polyethylene film over doors and windows during house construction prior to spraying the outside walls with stucco. Stucco tape is designed to be used outdoors for several days at a time, so it must be able to resist the ultraviolet of the sun’s rays during that time – and not come apart from the vinyl window frames.

6. True Duct Tape:

This one lives up to its name – duct tape is truly intended for sealing air ducts. Duct tape must be permanent and able to withstand the prolonged heat and air pressure for the lifetime of the duct. It may even need to be flame retardant to meet some building codes. Duct tape is the true top of the line, a high tensile, hardworking tape.

7. Coated Cloth Tape:

A roll of this tape has gone with every U.S. manned space launch, and is also commonly known as “Mission Tape.” This tape played an essential role in the construction of the carbon dioxide absorbers which saved the lives of the three astronauts in the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission.

With such a wide variety to choose from, start by considering exactly what you expect your tape to do. Then, evaluate the right polyethylene/fabric backing judged by tensile strength, as well as the right adhesive coating thickness, judged by adhesion level, for the best performance with the lowest cost.

Learn more about duct tape at this link; https://fortyreviews.nethouse.ru/posts/how-to-make-homemade-gifts-with-duct-tape

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