How was Masking Tape Born?

Masking tape, a strange name, is closely related to our daily life. Whether you travel by car, high-speed rail, aircraft, and other means of transportation, or mobile phones, computers, tablets, and other electronic products, or various interior decorations, exterior wall decoration, are inseparable from this magical tape.

Today I will tell you how masking tape was born?

It is not surprising that there are two or more colors on cars nowadays. However, in the United States in the 1920s, two-color spray-painted cars were still a new thing. Compared with the traditional black, the gorgeous appearance, publicized personality and unique style of two-color cars have gradually become the new fashion trend of American cars in the roaring twenties (the prosperous 1920s).

But how do these different color separation effects come true? At that time, it was mainly done by the workers of the car factory with paste and newspapers, but there were many problems in the actual process. If the paste is too little, the newspaper will fall off immediately. If it is too much, it is not easy to dry. Sometimes, it will even damage the painted paint. Moreover, the paint is easy to forms a jagged boundary through the newspaper, affecting the overall painting effect.

Richard Gurley Drew was an engineer of 3M who tested the quality of wet or dry abrasive paper at that time. One day he went to a car beauty shop in Sao Paulo for a routine visit. He saw that the workers were worried about how to use plaster tape for two-color paint spraying. An idea flashed through Dick drew's mind. Why can't we develop a special adhesive tape for automotive paint masking to provide customers with a perfect solution?

He realized that shelter products were urgently needed in the automotive industry, and because he sympathized with the painters, he promised them to make better adhesive tape products. Although he knows a lot about abrasive materials, he is a complete layman on tape. What's more, he has not received a formal technical education, and 3M has not tried to manufacture tape. It will face great difficulties in developing this product. Although he did not know how to develop it, he was very optimistic. After he explained his idea to the supervisor, the supervisor also encouraged him to conduct research and approved the experimental funds.

The adhesive tape required for automobile painting must have the following characteristics: strong adhesion, good color separation and demarcation effect, easy removal without damaging the paint, and no residual glue. Richard started his laboratory research. He first coated the adhesive on ordinary wrapping paper. Although the adhesive tape can be easily pasted and stripped, it does not meet the requirements because it destroys the coating. Richard made a lot of useful tapes, but he fell short in the end. Because he didn't have any basic knowledge, information, or technology in his mind, he had to fight alone.

William L. McKnight, the president at that time, was worried that the young Dick drew would lose his creativity and self-improvement due to frustration if the tried tape failed to be used in the automobile factory, so his boss ordered him to stop studying the tape and arranged him to assist in the research of sanding paper with high success rate.

Richard further emphasized that the major customers (automobile companies) can't wait to develop this kind of adhesive tape. William always respected the creator, and in the face of Richard's enthusiasm and confidence, he promised to continue to develop the tape. After continuous attempts, Richard finally successfully issued Scotch wet or dry nondrying lacquer tape (2-inch wide brown paperback base coated with a pressure-sensitive adhesive) in 1922, which is the first masking tape in the world.

Today, masking tape has evolved from the first two products to a family of Omni-directional masking products that can meet different application requirements. It is widely used in many fields, such as automobile, train, aviation, ship, electronics, home appliances, and home decoration, and provides customers with innovative and practical solutions.

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