What a Sample Policy for a Double Sided Tape Supplier Is Supposed to Prove

Technical guidesPublished 07 November 2026Updated 07 November 2026

A tape sample is evidence about one bonded joint: a named grade from a named lot, applied to the substrate you supplied, tested after the dwell and at the temperature you recorded. A sample policy for a double sided tape supplier is the written statement of who provides that evidence, which production record it comes from, and what happens when the test fails. Most of the wasted months I have seen in this trade come from asking a sample to carry conclusions a sample cannot carry, so this page sets out what each tier proves, what we put in writing, and which items stay open until enquiry.

What the term covers, and what it does not

A sample policy is not a promise to send material. It is an answer to four questions, and all four are worth settling in writing before anyone cuts something for you.

One: which tier of sample you receive. Two: which lot, work order or slitting record it came from. Three: what travels with it, meaning the data sheet, the test method and the batch reference. Four: what both sides do with the result. Whether a passing sample binds anyone to a construction, and whether a failing one is investigated or simply replaced without explanation.

What the policy does not cover is price, order quantity or delivery date for the production run. Those arrive on a quotation against your drawing and your destination. Our wording is deliberate: anything about the sample itself is confirmed at enquiry, and anything about the order that follows it is confirmed at quotation.

The three tiers, and what each one can prove

Tier one: a stock jumbo or slit roll. A length of converted tape from material already in the plant, cut to a standard width on a standard core. This proves wet-out and initial grab on your panel, lets you run a peel or shear check with your own method, and lets you judge liner type and handling at the station. It cannot prove that a narrow custom width will run true on your unwinder, and it cannot prove that a die-cut part releases cleanly, because edge condition and matrix state do not exist until a cutting route is chosen. A single roll can be provided for evaluation, and for a stocked grade the tier-one sample is the same construction the production roll is made from.

Tier two: a custom width, rewound. Here the supplier slits to your width, your core and your winding tension. This exposes edge quality, tension history and whether a thin width snakes or a thick coat blocks on the reel. It still cannot prove part behaviour: a die-cut outline introduces release angle, dwell against the liner and a waste matrix, and a roll carries none of those. Ask for tier two when the open question is the process rather than the chemistry.

Tier three: a die-cut part or first article. A laser-cut prototype or a first article off tooling, on the liner and in the format the part would ship in. This is the only tier that tests what your operator actually touches, and it is the tier where questions get skipped most often: which drawing revision, which cutting route, which liner, and whether the sample came from a lot that can be reordered. Prototype quantities for a die-cut part are agreed per part, and tier-three timing depends on material availability, tooling and cutting route rather than on a fixed turnaround.

What we state, and what stays open

Stated here: a single roll can be provided for evaluation, packaging-class goods can go out from 1 carton, and die-cut prototype quantities are agreed per part. Documents, meaning TDS, MSDS, RoHS and REACH statements and a first-article report, are issued against the grade actually ordered and the drawing it was cut from, not lifted from a catalogue. Lot records reach the incoming material batch, the adhesive batch, the slitting date and the inspection record, which is what makes a passing sample repeatable months later; the quality page describes the system those records sit inside.

Open at enquiry, and written as open: whether a sample carries a charge, the freight arrangement for sending it, how many pieces of a die-cut format are cut before a drawing is released, and the date it leaves the plant. A supplier who publishes one fixed answer for all four is describing a policy that cannot survive contact with different grades, destinations and project stages.

Five readings that cost buyers time

A passing peel value on a clean coupon says nothing about a coated moulding, because the substrate is the variable and not the adhesive.

A roll is not a part. Comparing two suppliers on rolls while your line places die-cut components compares the wrong object.

A sample pulled from a shelf lot is not your production lot. Ask for the batch reference before the test, so a result can be tied to something reorderable.

Testing immediately is not testing. Dwell, temperature and conditioning belong in the method, and a plant at 06:00 is not a laboratory at 23 °C.

A sample that arrives without a revision-dated data sheet cannot be re-ordered with confidence, because nobody can say what the reference was.

Before you ask: six checks

• Write down what the sample must decide: chemistry, format, or handling.
• Name the tier that answers that question and nothing else.
• Send the substrate with its finish, cure age and any surface treatment.
• Ask for the batch reference in the same email as the request.
• Agree who keeps the retained sample and for how long.
• Put the failure criterion in writing before the first pull test.

The question that comes up most

Does a passing sample commit a converter to that construction? It commits us to the lot the sample came from and to the documents issued with it. Your result decides the grade. Production quantity, price and timing are set on the quotation against your drawing and destination, and the double sided tape family page is the right starting point if the construction is not chosen yet. Send the application and the substrate through the sample request page, or go straight to the quote request page with the drawing, and the sample policy answer you get back will be written, not improvised.

Commercial and process terms on this page are the questions a converter has to answer, not a standing offer. Order quantities, lead times, tooling charges, sample terms, freight and payment structures are confirmed at quotation against your drawing, your material and your destination, and only figures already published elsewhere on this site are stated as commitments.