High temperature masking tape is an integral tool across different industries including automotive, transportation, marine, or industrial painting, coating and metal masking applications. It’s important to make sure you choose the correct type of high temperature masking tape that will perform best for what you’re working on, so you avoid encountering any problems.
Keep reading our blog for guidance on how to choose the right high temperature masking tape for your projects.
What is High Temperature Masking Tape?
High temperature masking tape is different from household masking tape. Regular household masking tape is made from thin paper and pressure sensitive adhesive which makes it easy to tear and apply.
High temperature masking tape, otherwise known as heat-resistant tape, is made from materials that provide resistance to high temperature. They’re made from a variety of materials that resist these temperatures, including polyester, fiberglass and silicone to name a few.
How to Choose the Right High Temperature Masking Tape
There are three main factors that need to be considered first when choosing the right heat-resistant tape for your project, and it’s worth researching to make sure you get it right the first time.
1. Your Environment
Different factors in your working environment can affect the efficacy of your heat-resistant tape like how well it adheres to the object and the clean removal time. You need to check temperature, humidity, sun exposure and the type of surfaces you have to work on before choosing a tape.
2. Your Product
One of the most important things to consider is the shape and surface of the object you’re coating – the texture can affect adhesion, and curved or angled surfaces require high temperature masking tapes that have special qualities to ensure you get proper coverage.
3. The Coating
The material that you’re using to paint, coat or plate your object with generally demand different high temperature masking tapes that are designed to withstand solvents, chemicals and high temperature bake cycles which they may be subject to during in the coating process.
After you’ve analysed those first important factors, there are then five features of the heat-resistant tapes you’ll need to check to ensure that you’re choosing the right one:
- Its tack: this will determine how well the heat-resistant tape establishes a bond during the application process. A higher level of tack will prevent edges of the tape from lifting or rolling back so that you get clean, crisp lines.
- The adhesion: this will determine how well a high temperature masking tape maintains its adhesion to a surface through the coating process. Higher performance heat-resistant tapes are designed to stick effectively to a number of surfaces, including metal, rubber, plastic and fiberglass.
- Flexibility: this will determine how well a heat-resistant tape conforms, stretches and bends, enabling you to mask off round, curved and inconsistent surfaces without creating creases, wrinkles or air pockets in the tape and reducing the chances of a bleed.
- Removal: it’s good to determine how long the heat-resistant tape can remain on the surface without leaving behind any residue on removal. It’s important that the individual tape’s recommended removal time is checked before application.
- Strength: to determine how resistant the high temperature masking tape is to tearing or peeling. A high-performance tape should be easy to remove, apply and remain adhered until it is removed. Any tearing or peeling slows down your coating process which is inefficient for business operations.
Get Expert Guidance Choosing the Right Heat-Resistant Tape
At Hi-Tek, our team has years of experience with masking, finishing and coating. Get in touch via our online contact form or by phone on 01202 661 300 to get expert guidance on which high temperature masking tape is right for your project. For more information, take a look at our recent blog posts, including our precision masking guide and how to avoid the 4 most common challenges in precision masking.