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Here the European Adhesive Tape Association AFERA – a not-for-profit trade association with over fifty years’ experience – explains the benefits of tapes for fixing and joining in product design.

Adhesive tapes are increasingly replacing rivets, screws, nuts, bolts, nails, staples, needle and thread, and welds. Often the use of tapes simply make fixing and joining possible, offering a unique and sophisticated attachment method that is revolutionising product design. This is especially true for challenging applications, which would have traditionally required rivets and welds, and for products designed with new composites, plastics, and a vast range of material combinations.

There are multiple advantages of using tape in product design over other fastening methods, these include:

• Using lighter, thinner materials: Reducing the overall weight of the product, you can use lighter, thinner, and less expensive materials without worrying about distortion, splitting, or crazing at the mechanically fastened site.

• Uniform stress distribution: Bonding tapes distribute stress over the entire bonded area. By using tape, you can eliminate stress concentration caused by spot welds, rivets, screws, or other mechanical fasteners that decrease substrate integrity.

• Eliminate drilling time and holes: Save time and money and eliminate the tools required for drilling and tightening. In most cases, integrating bonding tapes into your manufacturing process requires minimal training and little or no investment in equipment.

• Improve appearance and reduce finishing: Bonding tapes, which are generally hidden between the bonded substrates, offer virtually invisible fastening to keep surfaces smooth and clean, with no screws or rivet heads, or protruding nuts and bolts.

Adhesive tapes are used in a wide variety of environmentally challenging areas, such as in extreme temperatures and weather, and exposure to UV and chemicals – resisting stress corrosion and cracking.