Splicing tape is one of the small items often overlooked as a key ingredient to consistent production. 

Due to this, many don’t take the time to realize that when chosen incorrectly it can be a major contributor to press downtime, operator frustration, and even production inefficiencies.

Not Something to Ignore

I’d like to get you thinking about the splicing tape you are currently using in your pressroom. Are you buying solely based on your bottom-line? Are you selecting tape because that is the kind your company has always used? Or, more importantly, are you buying based on its performance?

Any operator can verify that re-webbing a press due to a splice break is extremely frustrating. Instead of trying to understanding the cause of the splice break, most of us will spend our time focused on how much time will be lost due to the breakage. This type of thinking only gets you through the job at hand – it won’t solve issues in the future. As we all know, loss of presstime equals loss of money.

Choosing the Right One

Not all tapes are created equally. The materials used to create these tapes include PVC (Plasticized Polyvinyl Chloride Film), UPVC (Unplasticized Polyvinyl Chloride Film), PP (Polypropylene), PET (Polyester) and other less common materials. Adhesives on these films  vary from acrylic-based, rubber-based and hot melt adhesives to name a few. In addition to the myriad of materials and adhesives, there are variations on the thickness of the filmic materials used as well as differences in the coat weights of adhesives used during construction.

The price difference between a premium and economy tape may seem significant at first, but be careful making your decision based off of this datapoint alone. Instead, also consider this:

• How much time does it take to re-web a press after a splice failure?
• How much is this downtime worth in dollars?

When you do the math you’ll notice you can buy a lot of premium tape by just eliminating a single splice failure.

The Solution

Stop running into the same issues. Don’t settle for inferior splicing tapes. Mark Andy Print Products has a team of experienced technical experts and a wide variety of tapes to solve every production and inspection challenge you may be encountering.

About the Author

Dr. Flexo (Bill Enright, Senior Applications Engineer at Mark Andy) has been in the printing industry for over 30 years, serving in a variety of different roles from plate mounting to operations management. Bill has earned his doctorate in printing. Throughout the years, he’s learned the quality of a print job is only as good as the consumables that go into it.