Tapes

Tapes are thin, flexible strips of material often coated with an adhesive, magnetic coating, or printed scale, used in a wide range of tasks from binding and sealing to recording and measurement. They may be single-use or reusable, and some types are designed for temporary applications, while others are intended for long-term use or archival storage.

Adhesive tapes, also known as pressure-sensitive tapes, carry an adhesive on one or both sides. Common examples include masking tape (paper, easily peeled), painter's tape (low adhesion for clean removal), duct tape (cloth-backed and reinforced), electrical tape (insulating vinyl), and packaging tape (bonded by hot-melt or acrylic adhesives on polypropylene or PET). Double-sided tapes and foam tapes provide mounting or cushioning. Filament or reinforced tapes use fiberglass or Kevlar for extra strength, while aluminum foil tape is used for sealing HVAC or ducts.

Magnetic tapes consist of a flexible plastic substrate coated with magnetic material, used for audio, video, and data recording. Historically used in reel-to-reel and cassette formats, later digital formats such as DAT and VHS HiFi. Today, broad use persists in professional archival storage with high-capacity systems such as Linear Tape-Open (LTO), valued for durability and long-term data retention. Access requires appropriate playback hardware.

Other tape types include film tapes used in motion picture and photography for splicing or masking, and tape measures, which are a different category: retractable strips of metal or fiberglass with measurement markings used for length measurement in construction and fabrication.

Care and storage: adhesives can degrade with heat, light, and solvents; store tapes in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight.