Sticky issue - not all packing tapes are equal

For professionals who engage with packaging as part of their day to day operations, sourcing the best products - providing the highest level of protection for the best price - is an ongoing process.

Often little thought is put into packing tape, but in reality the choice and difference between low and high quality adhesive tapes is massive. Choosing the right packing tape for your products is just as important as the cartons, void fill or any other options.

Why economy packing tape may not be all that it seems

While at the point of purchase cheaper packing tape may seem to represent good value for money, it often doesn’t take long to see examples of false economy when using it. For example, it often takes more low grade packaging tape to safely close a package than it would with better quality tape. Having to use more tape becomes costly and already the economy begins to lose its value.

Having to use more of a product is not only a monetary strain on businesses, it also has a potentially damaging environmental impact. A great deal of companies are now fully aware of their duties towards sustainability, and want the products they use to go as far as possible hence minimising waste.

Apart from needing to use more product to do the same job lower quality tapes will often also use a lower quality adhesive meaning you cannot ensure your product will not lose its seal during transit risking product breakage or damage and increasing the risk of theft or products going missing.

Recycled cartons - a sticky issue

Corrugated cardboard boxes with recycled content can often present an issue with lower quality packing tape. This is down to the relatively shorter fibres present within recycled material allowing for a more ‘dusty’ surface quality. At this point, it’s natural for professionals to blame the containers themselves, but the when you consider the positives of recycling and using recycled materials in production the use of these boxes will only continue to grow.

Therefore where recycled materials are concerned, producers need to take care to source a product that has sufficient ‘grab’ and hold in order to ensure that their packages are safely sealed.

Swiftpak’s Supatak range of packing tapes was developed for just this reason - a forward-thinking versatile adhesive tape built to perform in the packaging environments of today.

Supatak - adhesive tape built to hold

Supatak packing tapes were specifically designed to be stickier than lower grade tapes, with a much higher initial ‘grab’ it is perfect for use with recycled and normal cartons and with its superior hold minimises the amount of tape needed to hold the cartons shut securely. Supatak is the ideal choice when both economy and protection of products is priority.

Depending on your packaging needs and environment, there are a number of different packing tape options available:

● Classic Supatak: Designed to provide the highest hold on cartons with recycled materials, Supatak Classic packing tape is an advanced, multi-purpose tape perfect for any packaging environment.

● Low Noise Supatak : Low noise Supatak is specially formulated to provide reduced noise during application while allowing for the same high quality adhesion. Perfect as an alternative to vinyl and for sticking to fiberboard.

● Supatak Machine Tape: Supatak machine tape is classic Supatak as a machine-applied option, designed for use with automatic and semi-automatic tape machines.

● Supatak 150: Classic Supatak in a 150m roll. With 127 percent more tape per roll it helps to minimise down-time and maximise economy with less core waste and saving on storage space.