Alert!!!
On a recent sales call I was asked to find a solution to a customer's taping issues. The customer was having problems getting his plastic tape to stick to the carton properly. Upon investigation, I found his cartons were very dusty and manufactured with a very high recycled content. Plastic tape only sticks to the surface of a carton and does not sink into the fibers to bond like gummed tape.
While speaking with a carton manufacturer, I found the higher the recycle content, the shorter the fibers are in the construction of the carton. With shorter fibers, the cartons are not as strong as cartons with all virgin material or a lower recycle content. Each time the carton is recycled, the fibers get shorter.
So the plastic tape was sticking to the shorter fibers and not adhering like it normally would, plus the extra dust particles interfered with how much of the adhesive was effectively sticking.
The best solution if your company is finding the tape not sticking well is to look into gummed tape dispensers and a good grade of gummed tape.
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