Ever needed either a quick patch or a permanent solution?
The right tape or joiner can be your saviour!!!!
Here are a few types of tape used in the irrigation industry:
1. Electrical Tape
This kind of tape is often used by electricians, and that’s your obvious fact of the day. It’s typically made of slightly stretchy PVC vinyl, and is backed with a pressure sensitive rubber-type adhesive. It has good insulative properties, and is perfect for protecting wire splices and providing extra insulation on electrical cords. While you’ll most often see electrical tape in black, it’s also available in a variety of other colours (red, green, yellow, blue and white) that can be used for colour-coding.
2. Duct Tape
This Great Fix-All, needs no introduction, its toughness is due to a composite make-up of woven cotton cloth that’s been backed with polyethylene, and then coated with a high-tack adhesive. Duct tape conforms to almost anything, and when applied, forms a waterproof seal, which makes it perfect for everything from HVAC installations to impromptu repairs around the house.
3. Heat Shrink
Heat shrink is a polyolefin sleeve that contracts when heated, conforming to whatever surface it’s wrapped around. Heat shrink can come in a roll which is wrapped around the desired wire, and then heated in order to activate its adhesive. It’s useful when you want to provide some protective insulation for a wire splice on a cable that’s connected at both ends and can’t be moved. Once the adhesive cools, it forms a watertight bond that is able to repair cables and prevent pipe corrosion.
4. Thread seal tape
This tape is a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE or mouthful) film for use in sealing pipe threads and is common amongst tools used for irrigation. The tape is sold as a wound on a spool, making it easy to wind around pipe threads. It is also popularly but incorrectly called Teflon tape despite DuPont, the holder of that trademark, no longer manufacturing it.
Thread seal tape lubricates, allowing for a deeper seating of the threads, and it helps prevent the threads from seizing when being unscrewed. The tape also works as deformable filler, helping to seal the joint without hardening or making it more difficult to tighten and instead making it easier to tighten. Typically the tape is wrapped around a pipe’s thread 6-7 times before it is screwed into place.
Teflon tape is the answer to many irrigation issues, as long as you know how to use it, and when not to use teflon tape.
Vince is Managing Director of Hills Irrigation and is supported by Lisa in an administrative capacity. Andrew, Isaac and Megan look after the day to day needs of both online and shop customers. As Project Manager, Vince is also responsible for installation projects along with his team. It is his responsibility to work closely with clients to ensure that scope of work is understood and followed.
