A type of multipurpose tape that only has very mild adhesion until you heat it or compress it, something you do to change the amount of adhesion.. The problem with a lot of heavy duty tapes are that if you aren't careful they stick to themselves and you end up having to throw it away.
-- Cymor, Dec 07 2001

This link brought to you by the Pressure Sensitive Tape Council http://www.pstc.org/
[hippo, Dec 07 2001]

Finite lifetime glue http://www.halfbake...lue/addlink#addlink
Idée Symbiotiques [phoenix, Dec 07 2001]

Mind reading tape! Man, that is cool!
-- neelandan, Dec 07 2001


I understand the heating . . . not the compression part, though.
-- bristolz, Dec 07 2001


erm... that would be Pressure Sensitive Tape. You press it hard and it sticks hard. See link.
-- hippo, Dec 07 2001


Where I work (in a library) we use a special type of sticky backed plastic <obligatory Blue Peter flashback> </obligatory Blue Peter flashback> to cover books which is only slightly adhesive at first to enable repositioning, but which bonds permanently over time (it takes about 1/2 an hour to stick fast). Perhaps this could be produced in thin strips.
-- salachair, Dec 07 2001


The basis for heat - and pressure sensitive adhesives which may be incorporated into tapes is that of micro-encapsulation. Very small droplets of one component is encapsulated and dispersed within a matrix of the other component. This is the basis of the adhesives of the pressure sensitive type.

A "glue stick" which looks like a lipstick and is applied the same way (to paper you wish to stick, not the lips) is a microencapsulated product.

It is an old technique, old enough to have textbooks written on the subject, and the patents have probably expired.
-- neelandan, Dec 11 2001


...join the club!
-- pottedstu, Dec 11 2001



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