How To “Talk Tape”
Any serious discussion of adhesive-backed tape pretty quickly requires that you have a “tape vocabulary”. There are lots of terms that have one meaning in general discussions and quite another when the subject matter is tape.
Here are a few to get you started:
- Backing. Backing refers to the primary component of tape upon which an adhesive is applied. Examples are cloth, paper, vinyl, film etc! Substate is also a form of backing.
- Conformability. This refers to the capability of a tape to make total contact with a surface.
- Gapping. Openings between leaves of tape within a roll.
- Release coating. A very thin coating applied to the tape backing to allow the tape to be unwound from a roll.
- Telescoping. A sideways sliding of the tape layers, one over the other, so that the roll looks like a funnel.
- Tack. The “stickiness” of the tape.
- Creped. Paper substrate that has small “folds” to provide stretchability and conformability.
- Double-coated, or double-faced tape. Pressure-sensitive tape with adhesive on both sides of the substrate.
- Unwind. Removing or unwinding the tape from a roll.
Thank you, wikihow.
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