sprays, heat-applied adhesives and nothing seemed to be able to hold the fabric firmly, with it often detaching or rucking prior to the final sewing operation. It was at this stage that Anixter Adhesives in Sheffield got involved and introduced us to 3M's extensive range. After a lot of trial runs, we finally found our candidate 3M 950 Tape delivered exactly what we wanted in terms of its adhesive ability. Another plus was the ease at which it comes off its backing paper you will not believe the mess we created with tapes from other suppliers.”
Adhesive transfer tapes consist of a very thin layer of acrylic adhesive deposited on a host substrate. They can either be applied by hand or, in this instance, with a specially designed application system engineered by OE Sunshades which, as well as giving accurate placement, also removes the need for
subsequent rub-down steps and rewinds and stores the paper liner. The privacy shades went through an extensive development
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process and initial production was undertaken in the Far East, but OE Sunshades soon realised that overly long lead times and the cost of air freight were wiping out many of the savings it was achieving. It was at this stage that it decided to engineer out as much of the labour as it could and bring the production back to the UK. The performance of 3M's 950 Tape was one of the main factors making this migration back to Europe a possibility.
"After much searching we are delighted with the performance 3M 950 Tape is offering us." Giles continues. "We do get offers of alternatives, some of which are cheaper, but to date, none of them have been up to the job and none of them offer us the savings the 3M 950 Tape gives us in terms of speed of application, in situ adhesion and negligible quality rejection rates. With just six people working in a single shift pattern, we are able to produce more than 500 sets of shades per week."
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