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Carton tapes, also called packaging tapes, seal and close all types of shipping cartons. Carton tapes can be broadly categorized in two ways:
- Hand applied carton tapes
- Machine applied carton tapes;
Hand applied carton tapes are installed by hand using a tape dispenser. The dispenser controls the unwind of the tape with an adjustable ‘brake’ screw and contains a knife edge to quickly and safely cut the tape. Tape width of 2” (48 mm) and 3” (72 mm) are most common. The general purpose 1.6 mil (.0016”) thick carton tape consists of a polyethylene film with an aggressive hot melt adhesive designed to hold a variety of corrugated and liner-boardbox materials. Standard roll are 110 yards long. These tapes comply with the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act CFR, Code of Federal Register, Title 21, Subpart B, Paragraph 175.105 which covers the use of pressure sensitive adhesives and tapes for ‘indirect contact’ with food.
 Machine grade tapes most often use the same polyethylene film and adhesive used for hand grade carton sealing tapes, but are supplied in longer rolls of 1500 yards for automatic application. Semi-automatic, automatic and random automatic carton sealers with dispensers called tape heads, are used for high volume production line operations. To avoid nuisance problems, machine grade tapes are usually 1.85 mil (.0018”) or 1.95 mil thick. Machine grade packaging tapes meet the CFR specifications as hand grade carton tapes.
Carton tapes are also very common with backings made from paper and fiberglass reinforced paper. These types of packaging tapes are made with water activated adhesives and also pressure sensitive adhesives. The water activated carton sealing tape are most often installed by hand.
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