Tape holds fast in demanding display conditions

Colour Tone Masterbatch, based in Bedwas, near Caerphilly, Mid-Glamorgan, wanted a display that "would stop visitors in their tracks" at the recent K2007 plastics trade show in Dusseldorf. "We designed a 'wall of colour' that would highlight the vibrant colours made possible by using Vynacol colouring technology to colour rigid pvc film", Tony Gaukroger, managing director of Colour Tone, told FAST. To meet the design and performance brief for the display a CAD-based cutting and positioning point system was developed by DWD UK (based in Sheerness, Kent) for five 1m x 1.5m panels. Over 1000 individual items were precision cut and formed from rolls of coloured film. A 20mm return was designed in to the profiles in order to allow a convex shape to be formed as well as to accommodate the tesa 4965 double-sided tape used for mounting. "Fixing had to be sufficiently secure to ensure that the panels would withstand transit from this country to Dusseldorf, erection of the display, ten days under the glare of nine 100W spotlights, removal, and return shipment", explains Tony Gaukroger. "In prototypes a basic paper and board double-sided tape was used but the film profiles 'lifted' after only a few days. I envisaged the potential nightmare of the display falling to pieces during the show as bits popped out all over the place." The 4935 tape - based on a double-coated, high-shear strength, modified acrylic adhesive over a PET film - is a 205µm-thick transparent adhesive tape which performed "beyond expectations". Spare tapes that were taken were not used