Packaging tape for automatic and semi-automatic case sealers

This page is not about a material or an adhesive, but about format. Packaging tape is made in two very different types of roll, and ordering the wrong one is the most common cause of jams in the case sealer or of constant stoppages to change the roll. Machine tape comes on a long roll, usually around 900 to 1,000 metres, compared with the 66 metres typical of a hand roll.

That length has practical consequences: roll changes are infrequent, the line stops less and the cost per metre is lower than with a hand roll. The core is 76 mm, the standard for case sealers. The width, on the other hand, is not universal: it depends on your machine's taping head, so before ordering it is worth telling us the model and we will confirm the exact format.

Within the machine format you choose the adhesive just as with any packaging tape. Acrylic if the boxes spend time in storage or go through temperature changes; hot melt if you are closing clean cardboard at normal temperature on a fast line and dispatching straight away; solvent if you work with cold, humidity or recycled cardboard. Clear is the most common on machines. If you want to use PVC, check with us first: not all case sealers work the same way with all materials. Apply it above +10 °C and without over-tensioning the tape.

When does it make sense? As a guide, from around 100 boxes a day a semi-automatic case sealer soon pays for itself, and at around 500 boxes a day or more it is worth considering full automation. Remember that the case sealer closes the box, but does not form or fill it: that is the job of the case packer. MARFONT, the group's machinery division, advises you on the machine and the packaging tape that goes with it.

At Fontanet Group, from Fraga (Huesca), we have more than 30 years in the sector. Tell us your case sealer model, what cardboard you use and how many boxes you close a day, and our sales team will confirm width, roll length and adhesive.