The present invention relates to a tape strip having a tab section and an adhesive section. The adhesive section may have an adhesive on one or both planar surfaces of the strip. When the adhesive portion has adhesive on both planar surfaces, the tape strip may or may not comprise a separation mechanism that permits a separation of the tab portion from the adhesive portion. When the adhesive portion has adhesive on only one planar surface, the tape strip comprises the separation mechanism.
Double-sided tape is well known in the art. Such tape can be used to join two planar or conforming surfaces comprised of various materials. These materials can be paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, sheet metal, foil, wood, etc.
One of the problems with double-sided tape is that it can be difficult to handle. Such tape may come in a roll, wherein, e.g., a serrated cutting edge is used to separate a strip of double-sided tape from the roll. It is also know in the art to provide precut double-sided strips to a user. A disadvantage of these approaches is that the user must grasp a portion of this tape, thereby causing the tape to stick to the fingers of the user, making it difficult to precisely place and release, and furthermore possibly contaminating and compromising, to some extent, the adhesive on the tape.
One solution has been to provide cover sheets to one or both sides of the tape prior to placement. This has the advantage that at least one adhesive surface is protected from contact with the user prior to placement. However, such tape is still difficult to handle and place properly because generally at least one adhesive surface must still be contacted. Furthermore, such tape requires an additional step of removing one or more cover sheets in order to fully contact the desired surfaces. It can often be difficult to separate the cover sheet from the tape.
It is also known to provide adhesive tape strips cut to a predetermined length comprising an adhesive section that is coated on one side with adhesive, and a tab section that contains no adhesive. Such tape strips are frequently used for marking sections of a document, where the non-adhesive section may be colored and/or labeled.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds