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A great tape
There’s something that’s starting to replace duct tape in my affections and my toolbox. This new favorite is called “self-fusing silicon repair tape.”
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Self-fusing silicon repair tape produced a long-lasting, water-tight repair that resisted the insulation-destroying rubbing that had plagued wiring on this equipment trailer. Photo by Scott Nesbitt |
The name’s a lot longer than “duct” and there are no books written about the stuff, but it will do things that duct tape can’t, and it’s making life easier in the service shop and out on the golf course.
Self-fusing tape is sold under many different brand names. You can identify it by the way it’s packaged, with a thin plastic liner that prevents the tape from sticking to itself in the roll. That’s a clue to how this tape works.
When you peel off a strip and lift the plastic liner, you’ll notice that the tape doesn’t feel sticky. And it’s not.
The trick is that this tape sticks to itself. The more you stretch it as you wrap it onto something, the tighter it sticks. Each side of the tape becomes sticky to other stretched surfaces of the tape.
After you stretch and wrap a few layers, the tape starts to fuse. The process can take from a few minutes to a few hours, depending on temperature.
You do not have to super-clean the surface you’re wrapping. Once the tape sets up, you can only remove it by cutting it away because it’s almost impossible to unwrap it. And it leaves no sticky residue.
Once installed and fused, silicon tape forms a long-lasting flexible covering that I’ve found is highly resistant to wear. It’s become my standard for wrapping wiring looms. I add a few extra layers where wires pass through or over metal parts, and so far it’s prevented abrasion from wearing away insulation on the wires.
It’s also done the trick repairing cuts in watering hoses, and saved a lot of money and time repairing a specially shaped vacuum hose on an engine.
I’ve not yet tried it on a pressurized cooling-system hose or hydraulic line, but I’m willing to give it a try in an emergency.
The tape is made of silicon. That’s the same stuff used for hoses on a lot of heavy-duty trucks and large equipment like excavators.
It appears to be really strong, judging from the force it takes to pull the stuff apart when you’re done wrapping. Most of the time, I need a knife to cut it off the roll. I’m guessing it would work as an emergency repair for a split radiator hose.
Bernhard & Co. recently hired Ben Taylor (pictured) as a technical training manager and Russell Abbott as a territory manager in the Northeast. Taylor will head up Bernhard’s international technical training team, providing training on the company’s Express Dual and Anglemaster machines and presenting educational events worldwide. He previously worked for John Shaw Machinery, a Toro dealer in England. Abbott, a 25-year veteran in the golf and turf industry, will support Bernhard distributors in the U.S. Northeast and provide education, training and tournament support across the country. He previously worked with a Kubota Tractor distributor and as a territory manager for a John Deere distributor.
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