'The Tackifier' Blog by FindTape

Will This Adhesive Tape Hold? Testing the Adhesive Strength of Double-Sided Tape.

You may not believe it, but double-sided adhesive tape has remarkable – even Herculean! – strength. Some pressure-sensitive tape is even used as a replacement for rivets in buildings or in manufacturing. In other words, it's not just for mounting frames and other wall hangings.

Double-sided tapes are available in different backing or carrier types such as film, tissue, cloth, paper and foam and they are available in a range of peel adhesions and tensile strengths. Our least adhesive double-sided film tape, the JVCC DC-4109RS product has a peel adhesion of 29 ounces per inch and is comparable to a general-purpose masking tape. It's perfect for mounting lightweight items, such as nameplates.

But that's just a start. Some of the other double-sided tapes we offer at FindTape.com have very impressive strength and adherence qualities. A double-sided film tape like Scapa S301 Double Coated UPVC Tape is adhesive enough to be used in product assembly, while 3M 4950 VHB Tape is used in both interior and exterior structural bonding applications.

But rather than tell you about the adhesive strength of our double-sided tapes, I'd like to show you. In this video, I test four double-sided tapes to see which one can support the most weight. Check it out.

3M 9415PC is a translucent polyester film differentially coated with a removable/repositionable, low tack, adhesive on one side (back/liner side) and a permanent, high tack, adhesive on the other (face/exposed side). Unlike the other differentially coated tapes on the web site the removable side on this tape is also repositionable so its good when you need multiple openings and closings. Also its removable low tack side offers only nominal adhesion so its good for paper mailings since it will not cause delamination from most paper stock.

Scapa S301 is a clear UPVC film tape coated on both sides with an exceptionally high tack, high peel, acrylic adhesive system. It offers excellent adhesion even to demanding surfaces such as sports jerseys. It also meets the compositional requirements of FDA regulation 21 CFR175.105 (adhesives) for indirect food contact.

3M 4952 VHB tape is a closed-cell firm acrylic foam which is coated on both sides with a low-surface energy synthetic adhesive. This is the tape in the 3M VHB family best suited to bond to many lower surface energy substrates including many plastics and powder coated paints. The tape offers excellent adhesion, durability and solvent and moisture resistance.