Vinyl tapes or electrical tapes are a pressure-sensitive tape that is used to insulate any material that can conduct electricity, especially electrical wires. It is available in a variety of colors and sizes, with each color denoting a particular use by electricians.
What Is Vinyl Tape Commonly Used For?
Vinyl tape is often used to indicate safety hazards, seal joints, wrap pipes, color coding in industrial facilities and even decorating and bundling. Vinyl tape is a lot easier than paint when it comes to marking lanes in factories and parking areas, and its superior adhesive means that it stays put.
In addition to protection, identification, and binding of cables, wires, and electrical joints, the vinyl tape is also often employed in the automotive industry, for bundling and repairing wire harnesses.
Often times, electricians use the vinyl tape when installing low voltage cabling for data, voice, and alarms, etc. It helps attach the cable to pull strings, cable snakes, and other devices. It can also be used when pulling in new cable connections by connecting to older cable, or when using the older cables to pull in new cables.
What Makes Vinyl Tape Ideal for Commercial Use?
For starters, nothing beats the effectiveness of Vinyl Tape as an environment-friendly and pressure sensitive adhesive. It offers unbeatable protection and insulation for all electrical installations. To top it all off, the strength and flexibility of a vinyl tape make it great at withstanding the adverse effects of moisture, corrosion, abrasion, etc. from alkalis, acids and the force of nature alike. Snow, rain, or extra hot shine? None of it is a problem for vinyl electrical tapes. Make sure you buy the ones certified flame retardant, UL listed and CSA certified for effectiveness for a huge range of temperatures. This will ensure your complete peace of mind when using vinyl tape.
But that’s not all, here are the top 4 reasons why vinyl tape is great for commercial use:
- Repair Work Made Easy
Electricians today can’t even imagine the lengths they’d have to go to, to ensure the quality of their insulation work if they didn’t have a vinyl tape at hand. A high-quality vinyl tape has excellent resistance to corrosion and stays put where ever it is used. The secret to its quality is the elastic tape backing and the make-up of the adhesive. The tape not only perfectly conforms to the application, but also offers a long-term uniform covering while also preventing any kind of flagging. This helps relieve the amount of repair work needed.
- Exceptional Workability
Electrical tape offers unparalleled adhesiveness when it is stretched before being applied to a product. The work efficiency is further enhanced. When you adhere the tape to a piece of wire, to a cord or pretty much anything else by stretching it as you wrap it around. This enhances the adhesiveness and ensures better insulation than when it is applied carelessly and loosely. Though it works even then, the stretch is better.
- Excellent Durability
Once the vinyl tape has been wrapped around an object several times, it’s very difficult to break. The tape can also resist the worst of corrosive acids and works for many years to protect the object within. It will be many years before the tape loses its elasticity and will need to be replaced. What’s surprising is that despite this super-strength it is easy to tear off a roll of vinyl tape by hand, making it super easy to work with. But if you do this, know that you will be compromising on its stretchability. So, keep a scissor nearby when working with a vinyl tap.
- Available in a Wide Range of Colors
Black, Blue, Green, Red, Yellow are the standard range of vinyl tape available for commercial purposes. These colors have diversity cabling work and make the resulting bunding look good. These tapes are also available in different thickness, widths and other patterns for you to pick one depending on the needs of the application. Also, it is possible to print on top of the vinyl tape and use it as packaging tape and barrier tape. The applications of a quality vinyl tape are virtually endless.
Last Word
All in all, vinyl tapes are employed in construction works, tying works, automotive industry, electrical works, and a variety of other uses.
This insulating tape is known for its stretchiness and for providing long-lasting insulation. That makes it perfect for a variety of uses, even outside of the electrical applications. Vinyl tapes are quite versatile items, you can even find ones with highly reflective glow-in-the-dark properties.