Those that are looking to seal cartons faster in a more economic and stronger manner typically utilize water-activated tape or WAT. Some testing has done in this to see how they compare to pressure-sensitive tape, or PST.
The first is productivity. With the test, they compared how many cartons could be sealed with bone. The water-sealing was actually 21% greater than the pressure-sensitive tape that’s there.
Then there was the sealing method, where they compared at how much tape was used with both. The water-activated again proved to be less than the pressure-sensitive tape, being about 8% less than the other one.
The next test done is tape integrity, which is where they look at how the tape is able to withstand either force or different weather instances.
They sealed the cartons with both kinds, applied consistent force that compresses it, and as well tried to work to open the seal, break the tape, and also break the package itself.
With water-activated tape, it took about 60 pounds before they broke.
In contrast, it took 16 pounds to open the carton with the pressure-sensitive tape. This is usually based on force that’s used by the average human being, and they concluded from this that there was no way that they could secure the carton and its integrity with pressure-sensitive tape.
Finally, we have adhesion testing, which is where they look at how the water-activated tape along with the pressure-sensitive tape was able to adhere to the cartons after sitting around for a bit of time. Both 5 seconds and then 24 hours. They tried different types of tape on the cartons, and they noticed with two of them how much came off if they pulled off the tape after 5 seconds, and the second they did it after 24 hours.
What did they find?
Well, they found that the water-activated tape was able to stick very strongly to the cardboard when in contrast, pressure-sensitive wasn’t able to do this.
This is important since it does measure the bonding or tackiness, which is an important tamper-evident part of packaging that matters a lot to the average consumer.
So as you can see with this, even after a few seconds the pressure-sensitive tape didn’t even work very well because it wasn’t’ nearly as tacky as the water-activated versions were. The water-activated died offer much more tackiness right off the bat.
But what about after 24 hours?
Well, the only one that passed again was our water-pressure tape. This helped keep the carton from failing in most of the area that was tested, so it will protect the packaging very well.
Then of course, there was the pressure-sensitive, which is where the tape was easily taken off, and it even removed some of the cardboard that was on the carton itself!
It’s clear that the big thing to understand here is that this doesn’t work for most packaging.
The testing showed that if you’re going to be sealing packages and cartons for the long-term, and you want it to not only last, but also be strong, and reduce tampering of the packaging, you need to use the water-based tape for sealing.
With the proper applications for sealing, you can definitely improve the way your items stay nice and fresh, and by doing that, more people will want to buy the product since it means that you’re giving them the best options out there, some high-quality sealing, and they’ll be able to use the product for a lot longer than the usual intended time of use.