Central air conditioner ducts are often routed through unconditioned zones in the building. Metal duct conveying cool, conditioned air through a broiling attic in summer or warm air through a chilly crawl space in winter may lose a substantial amount of temperature. On average the air ducts leak around 20% to 30% of the air conditioned or heated air. These losses can be reduced by insulating metal ductwork with wrap-around insulation. In order to help improve efficiency, it’s important to seal all of the air ducts joints with Air conditioner tapes.
With dozens of options in HVAC tapes, determining which one is right for your job is critical. It’s important to consider factors like UL Listings, the type of surface the tape must adhere to, and whether the tape has the strength and longevity to hold throughout the system’s life span.
Aluminum Foil Backing
The first consideration in tape selection is backing. Most Air conditioner ductwork applications necessitate a tape with a pure foil or laminated foil backing, although there are some reinforced Aluminum foil tapes which are robust enough to be used in Air conditioner ductwork applications.
If the pure aluminum foil is strength large enough, increase the thickness of the aluminum foil, so that the cost is very expensive. We usually use reinforced aluminum foil to increase its tensile strength but not much production costs. Reinforced aluminum foil tape include FSK tape, Aluminum foil glass cloth tape, Foil scrim tape, PET laminated foil tape.
Above Air conditioner tapes allow for maximum surface contact with the adhesive by easily conforming to rough and uneven surfaces, which makes them an excellent option for sealing flexible duct and reflective insulation.
However, because of their robust construction and durability, Air conditioner tapes are the most common for Air conditioner ducts jobs.
Adhesive layer
The second consideration in tape selection is Adhesive layer.
Synthetic rubber resin adhesive is synthetic rubber adhesive systems. The synthetic rubber adhesive alone does not posse any adhesive properties, and must be combined with tackifier resins to create a PSA. Also named Hot melt adhesive. It will be offer good tack and adhesion to a variety of surfaces, but will not perform well in colder temperatures.
Water-based acrylic adhesive and Solvent-based acrylic adhesive
Acrylic Adhesive is industrially manufactured, and thus can be manipulated based on the selection of the monomers used in the formulation.
Acrylic adhesive will be offer good tack and adhesion to width range of temperature （from -30 degrees to 150 degrees ）.
Water-based acrylic adhesive will be good aging stability, high resistance to UV, ozone and humidity, best useful in long-term, outdoor applications.
