Could Your Tape Be Overkill?

Your Tape Might Be Overkill in Three Different Ways

We provide a lot of resources on our blog that emphasize how good tape is for your business. After all, we turn tape into a tool meant to help you solve a problem. If your application involves mounting or bonding or even stopping something from buzzing, tape becomes your key to success. Yet too much of a good thing also can lead to tape overkill.

Tape overkill can be tricky to spot without the help of a reliable converter. This turns out to be the case because from a production standpoint a tape may work well. It often requires the help of a tape expert to see that even a tape that’s working is wrong for the project.

For this reason, we want to share our insight with you about three common ways that your tape can be overkill:

Overkill in Terms of Performance
Overpriced Tape Solutions
Over-Engineered Tape Solutions

Want to see if your tape might fall into these three categories? Ask our experts today!

Tape Overkill in Terms of Performance

This first issue might seem easy enough to pinpoint at first. What are the performance traits your project needs? Then compare those application traits with those of the tape you’re currently using.

Does the tape offer more traits than necessary?

For example, an industrial masking tape made to withstand weeks of UV exposure might perform amazingly for your indoor painting service. But if your tape isn’t ever exposed to UV, then you might be paying extra for a capability you’ll never need.

This above situation offers a more obvious example, but tape overkill can also be quite difficult to spot.

Let’s say you’re researching tapes for mounting small to medium-sized signs outdoors. Immediately, you find some of the mounting industry’s most sought-after foam tapes, such as 3M’s VHB Tape or tesa’s ACXplus line. Each of the performance traits match up perfectly to what you need in terms of permanent mounting strength and outdoor environmental resistance.

However, both 3M and tesa also have high-performance general-purpose tapes that may easily provide the same results at a fraction of the cost. This leads us right into the next way tapes can be overkill.

Overpriced Tape Solutions

(Important clarification here: we’re not saying that there are tapes that are overpriced generally speaking. Instead, if you’re using a more expensive tape than necessary, then your tape solution itself is what becomes overpriced.)

Returning to the above 3M and tesa example, both suppliers even offer more economical foam tape options that you might not know about.

For instance, 3M recently launched their VHB LSE series for hard-to-bond-to materials. This new product line has a generous price point and may even save you more than the VHB Tape you’re currently using.

Plus, tesa also just released their new ACXplus Multi Purpose line. This new series offers you the performance benefits of their foam tapes at a fantastic price point.

When researching prices, it might be worthwhile to revisit or keep tabs on your favorite go-to tapes. Like the above examples show, you can increase ROI by simply transitioning to a new tape in the same product family.

Over-Engineered Tape Solutions

Sometimes, it’s easy to get so attached to one converting detail that a product might end up a bit more “engineered” than is necessary. Of course, these products might look fantastic and do the very thing you envisioned it would. But at what cost?

Your product might require a huge premium and eat away at ROI when considering labor/production efficiencies.

One design principle to keep in mind here is balancing form (the look) and function (the usability). If we complicate the function of a product for the sake of a certain look, then it can create an over-engineered issue. By simplifying the form without affecting the product’s function, you can save big in production.

For example, you may have envisioned your tape product to have a few “extra bells and whistles” that make the product look great. But, if those additions don’t make a difference to usability, then you might be paying more for a flourish instead of a feature.

How Converters Help You Avoid Tape Overkill

Of course, the simplest answer to avoiding tape overkill is to have a quality converter do the leg work for you.

A converter that you trust is your greatest ally against tape overkill. In fact, you can think of reliable converters as your overkill prevention insurance policy.

As converters, we have the experience and the relationships to conduct research that’s both thorough and efficient. We have tape experts ready to respond to your questions or concerns about the potential of tape overkill.

Finally, we put our resources to the test to find you the exact tape solution. By exact, we mean one that matches your project’s performance needs and budget with the simplest usability.