THE’September 8, 1930 the first roll of clear tape was sent by the3M manufacturing company to a customer who, enthusiastic about the product, confirmed its genius. This object, however banal it may seem to us today, was at the time a real turning point: the bankers They used it to repair damaged banknotes, the farmers to seal cracked eggs and in house It was used to close open milk cartons – not to mention its use in offices. In no time at all this product – whose full name at the time was Scotch® Brand Cellulose Tape – became an indispensable object in the life of every citizen. But how was it invented? To find out, we have to take a leap in time and go to the automotive industry of the 1920s.
From car painting to the first adhesive tape
At the time, most of the cars on the market were two-tone and so during the painting phase it was necessary to cover alternately first one portion of the vehicle and then the other… but nobody knew how to do it in the best way. In fact, they often used Newspaper sheets fixed with gluebut as is easy to imagine when these were removed they often ruined the paint already present.
One day a 3M engineer, the twenty-three year old Richard G. Drewwent to work in a shop that dealt with painting. There he heard the complaints of a worker regarding the glue problems and volunteered to find a solution: he would invented a tape capable of detach from the paint without damaging it.
He decided to start from the adhesive used by the company for sandpaper and experimented with vegetable oils, resins, glues and glycerin. He finally obtained an amber-colored formula composed largely of carpenter’s glue kept sticky by presence of glycerin on a support of treated crepe paper. All things considered, he had created the first adhesive tape.
The invention of transparent adhesive tape
In those same years, DuPont launched another material onto the market that was destined to make history: cellophane. Drew, as soon as he saw it, immediately understood that it could become a new support for a Waterproof version of his first adhesive tape. The problem was that cellophane was a rather delicate material: during processing it tended to to tear oneself apart and cut, not to mention the fact that here the stickers stuck pretty poorly And stained an amber color the transparent film.
Step by step, however, Drew’s team managed to overcome all the difficulties: first they found a way to cut and work the cellophane without breaking it, then they made a new one colorless glue based on oils, resins and rubber.
The final product was ready: as anticipated, theSeptember 8, 1930 The first clear tape was shipped to a customer, marking the success of a product that, in various shapes and sizes, is still extremely popular almost a century later.
Types of Adhesive Tape
Today there are numerous varieties of adhesive tape on the market and, in addition to the traditional one, among the main ones we find:
- Paper tapeis the modern version of the first Drew tape, particularly used in the construction and artistic sectors;
- Packing tape (or parcel tape)particularly resistant to humidity, abrasion and with excellent adhesion to cardboard;
- Double sided tape, that is, double-sided tape;
- Canvas tapeuseful for repairing and binding thanks to its dense weave.
