While many people might assume that adhesive tape exists only in office use, for sealing parcels and performing do-it-yourself tasks, the largest application for tapes is sealing packaging cartons. Furthermore, carton manufacturing is one of the key drivers for the 5 percent compound average annual growth rate market analysts Freedonia Group predict for overall tape sales between 2007 and 2010.By that time, the analysts predict the total tape market value will hit $26.5 billion and consume 322.8 billion square feet of tape annually.
Likewise, labelling is one of the three key markets for the crucial packaging adhesive sector2, and has an important part to play in many other industries. As these markets are so well established, we have learnt much about the pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs) used in them.
Furthermore, the adhesive does not change state in the course of its useful lifetime.Therefore, a tape's adhesive material has the same viscoelastic property, somewhere between a solid and liquid, when bonding two surfaces and when they are separated.