Different Foam Tape Materials Explained: PE, Silicone, Acrylic & More
Foam tapes can come in all shapes, sizes, and materials. From double-sided and single-sided variations to PVC-based and polyethylene-based foam tapes, their versatility is unmatched and means they can be used for many tasks within the automotive industry. Whether you’re mounting, masking, sealing, protecting or bonding, they offer just the right amount of pressure sensitivity, flexibility and, most importantly, customisability.
So how do the different types of foam tape compare and what should they be used for? Find out all the answers in this guide to the various foam tape types and materials.
Types of foam tape
There are two main types of foam tape, one being single-sided and the other being double-sided. So, aside from the obvious, how do these differ? Let’s take a closer look at each one below.
Single-Sided Foam Tape
Foam tapes featuring single-sided adhesive are best suited to preventing overspray, priming and masking swage lines because the foam can absorb excess paint and prevent it from seeping onto specific surfaces. Thanks to the flexibility of the foam, these types of tapes are also ideal for applications when the surface of a material is uneven.
Double-Sided Foam Tape
While automotive professionals typically prefer to use single-sided foam tapes for masking and priming, automotive double-sided foam tapes are more useful for tasks requiring a secure bond between two surfaces. From mounting substrates to sealing, the versatility of foam tape makes this perfect for these purposes when the adhesive features on both sides.
Different foam tape materials
Foam tapes can be created using polyethylene, acrylic, PVC or polyurethane. Although all these tapes are foam-based, they all feature different properties and materials depending on which jobs they’re best suited to. So how do foam tapes vary when they’re made with different materials? Find out below.
PE (Polyethylene) foam tape
Polyethylene foam tape is excellent at compensating for materials expanding or contracting, which makes it perfect for easily sealing two surfaces. Since PE is also lightweight and durable, this also makes it a robust choice for tape intended for mounting substrates and different materials. This is why we chose this material for our Double-Sided Mounting Tape.
Polyurethane foam tape
Polyurethane foam is used for automotive tapes because of its temperature-resistant properties, alongside being conformable and durable. Therefore, it can provide adequate protection for vehicles in low and high-bake ovens throughout the respraying process. Thanks to the polyurethane construction, our No Edge Blending Tape Plus benefits from excellent temperature resistance up to 160°C/320°F, alongside providing the perfect finish when blending the clearcoat to swage lines and panel edges.
PVC / Vinyl foam tape
Foam tape constructed using PVC or vinyl can offer excellent reliability, alongside chemical and weather resistance. Because of this, these tapes are most often used for sealing apertures and gaps efficiently.
Acrylic foam tape
Offering flexibility and elasticity, acrylic foam tape can be highly versatile for various jobs in automotive body shops. The acrylic provides high strength and long-term durability you can trust, which means that it’s best suited to mounting and sealing jobs rather than masking. For example, our Grey Double-Sided Acrylic Tape offers reinforced acrylic which makes it weather-resistant and strong regardless of whether it’s being used for internal or external fixtures.
Different Foam Tape Adhesives
Now that we’ve covered the different foam tape materials, it’s time to delve into the various foam tape adhesive options available. From rubber-based adhesives to acrylic, you can find out how they work and what they should be used for in automotive body shops.
Rubber adhesive
When it comes to choosing a foam tape best suited to masking off difficult areas for priming and applying automotive paints, you’ll need to pick one that offers conformability. Rubber-based adhesives are perfect for this since they not only provide the flexibility needed for applications in tight areas, but they also feature high viscosity and excellent water resistance. Because of this, rubber adhesives can be useful for a huge range of tasks.
Rubber adhesive features in our Smooth Edge Foam Masking Tape and Flexi No Edge Blending Tape. These are both single-sided foam tapes, although they have slightly different purposes. The Smooth Edge Foam Masking Tape provides a quick and efficient solution for masking off gaps like boot lid openings and door jambs, while Flexi No Edge Blending Tape offers a unique adhesive solution for masking curved swage lines and curved panel edges.
Silicone adhesive
Silicone foam tape offers a strong, consistent bond and can easily adhere to a variety of surfaces. They’re often heat-resistant too, which makes them particularly useful for mounting external and internal fixtures. Although silicone adhesive offers some flexibility, it’s not usually the top choice for automotive foam tapes that will be applied in harder-to-reach areas and around bends. Instead, this adhesive is favoured for creating heavy-duty mounting tapes where strength and durability are more valuable.
Acrylic adhesive
With high temperature and UV resistance mixed in with excellent durability, it should come as no surprise that acrylic adhesives are chosen for many mounting tapes. Our Double-Sided Mounting Tape features an acrylic adhesive which boosts the durability and helps the foam tape offer high tack fixings.
But this isn’t the only thing that acrylic adhesives are useful for. The temperature and UV-resistant properties also make it a good choice for single-sided tapes applied to a vehicle before baking at high temperatures.
We hope you’ve enjoyed these insights into the different foam tape materials available alongside their main uses. To discover our wide variety of automotive tapes available, check out our product page.
4 Advantages of Choosing Acrylic Foam Tape
You’ve spent days pondering your latest project, but are still in between materials.
When the screen before you reads PICK ACRYLIC FOAM TAPE, how can you tell whether it’s the right choice for you?
Although acrylic foam tape is one of the primary materials Strouse works with, we know that it may or may not be your next best adhesive. However, by reviewing the advantages of acrylic foam tape, you’ll learn what it is, where it functions best, and how it might be a suitable choice for your project, depending on the environment and application.
What is Acrylic Foam Tape?
Acrylic foam tape is a high-durability bonding adhesive for high-temperature and long-term applications.
The most popular type of acrylic foam tape is 3M’s VHB adhesive, but there are also many other options, such as Avery Dennison’s AFB. Common uses for acrylic foam tape include joining, sealing, and gasketing applications.
Acrylic foam tape is used for powerful bonding in automotive, aerospace, construction, and other industries. The material itself is flexible, high-performance tape intended to last.
Why Should I Use Acrylic Foam Tape?
Depending on your project, you might use acrylic foam tape for many reasons. Let’s discuss the advantages of choosing it over another adhesive material.
1) ADHESIVE STRENGTH
Acrylic foam tape is known for its considerable strength, which lends itself to permanent applications. While there are non-permanent and low surface energy acrylic foam tape variations, the majority are built for long-term use.
When engineers think of a robust bonding solution, they often think of mechanical fasteners like bolts and rivets. Yet, using mechanical fasteners involves puncturing the surfaces of the substrates you’re bonding, which creates holes and weakens the overall structure.
Acrylic foam tape creates a water and particle-resistant seal between their surfaces to avoid weathering and extend the adhesive bond’s lifespan by reducing the chance of rust and failure. In addition, the bond it creates is often more substantial than that of mechanical fasteners.
While the acrylic adhesive is powerful enough to hold together metal paneling in horse trailers and industrial construction, it’s also been proven to reduce noise and vibration.
Therefore, acrylic foam tape like VHB is an excellent alternative to mechanical fasteners due to its strength, sealing and sound-dampening abilities, and low weight.
2) OUTDOOR TAPE DURABILITY
Regarding weathering, acrylic foam tape has many advantages, such as UV resistance and waterproofing, to protect itself from moisture and humidity.
In addition to these factors, acrylic foam tapes can endure a wide range of extreme temperatures. For instance, certain VHB tapes can withstand temperatures as low as -40°F (-40°C) and up to 450°F (232°C) (likely not the same product, though).
Many outdoor applications also involve substances like petroleum, but acrylic foam tape is solvent-resistant, meaning it can easily withstand contact with many complex materials, oils, and solutions.
3) ELASTICITY
Acrylic foam tape is an elastic, often conformable material, depending on your chosen tape.
Once it bonds to a substrate, the foam tape acts as both a viscous liquid and an elastic solid due to the adhesive seeping into the surface on a microscopic level.
Elasticity allows acrylic foam tape to fit comfortably between two substrates and maintain flexibility without breaking. Once the user has placed it and applied pressure, the pressure-sensitive tape will bond to the substrate underneath and distribute the weight of any loads evenly across its surface.
4) MANUFACTURABILITY
Acrylic tape can be cut into many different shapes and complex tolerances depending on the specific material and application.
While the tape is manufacturable, it’s not always the easiest material to process. Some acrylic foam tapes have the consistency of bubblegum, which often leads to more setup testing due to an increased challenge of accurate die cutting.
Still, thanks to the flexible material converters with extensive experience working with acrylic foam tape, there’s a lot of variety in what can be built and options for liner customization.
Choosing Acrylic Foam Tape
If you’re interested in finding the right acrylic foam tape, you’ll want to keep conformability and adhesion at the forefront of your mind.
Acrylic foam tapes are grouped into different families based on their properties. Certain tape families are more conformable while others are stiff, and each product has a unique adhesion level.
Many acrylic foam tapes are popularized within certain industries due to their properties, so you might want to try talking with your converter about what you’re looking for before committing to a tape for your project.
Whether your acrylic foam is mounting a heavy object indoors or serving as a gasket outdoors, you’ll want to find a high-tack tape compatible with your substrates and suits the intended environment.
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