Simplification of Industrial Masking Tape Line Signals a New Type of Innovation for 3M

3M revolutionized industrial and consumer markets when it invented Masking Tape in 1925. The company is once again poised to revolutionize the industry, this time, by Making Masking Simple.

“Choosing an industrial masking tape should be simple,” said Matthew Van Vleet, U.S. product manager at 3M. “Customers need to have confidence that they’re using the right level of performance for the job.” To make this happen, 3M is proud to launch a new lineup of five industrial masking tapes – 101+, 201+, 301+, 401+ and 501+ – built on increasing levels of performance and engineered to perform in most all industrial jobs that require a masking tape.

The new line includes 3M™ Value Masking Tape 101+ for basic jobs such as marking, temporarily holding, wrapping and sealing; 3M™ General Use Masking Tape 201+ that’s tough enough for everyday jobs like bundling, labeling and identifying; 3M™ Performance Yellow Masking Tape 301+ for industrial paint masking, bundling, color coding and sealing; 3M™ High Performance Green Masking Tape 401+/233+ for high performance industrial painting of aircraft, buses, trailers, trucks, boats, trains and other specialty vehicles; and 3M™ Specialty High Temperature Masking Tape 501+ for the highest degree of industrial performance in high temperature paint baking applications.

According to Van Vleet, 3M’s new five-tape system is designed to help customers choose the right level of performance for the job. Too often, customers use the same level of masking tape performance for painting a vehicle as they use for hanging up a piece of paper on the wall. Until now, most masking tape has been tan, and difficult to differentiate. As a result, customers use the highest level of performance on all jobs, so they don’t introduce risk into their process. With the new lineup of 3M Masking Made Simple tapes, performance levels will be easy to determine, creating an opportunity to drive improvements through choosing the right performance level.

For customers with unique masking challenges, 3M will continue to offer a broad portfolio of specialty masking solutions. But in this world of increasing complexity, 3M Innovation is working hard to make customer’s lives simpler.

Adhesive technology is one of 3M’s legacy technology platforms. The company manufactures popular adhesive tape lines under the Scotch® and Command™ brand names and has manufactured enough Scotch® Tape to circle the Earth 165 times every year, and holds the world record for lifting a forklift with six square inches of adhesive area.

For more information about how 3M is making masking simple, and its new line of Masking Tapes, visit www.3M.com/maskingmadesimple.

About 3M
3M captures the spark of new ideas and transforms them into thousands of ingenious products. Our culture of creative collaboration inspires a never-ending stream of powerful technologies that make life better. 3M is the innovation company that never stops inventing. With $30 billion in sales, 3M employs about 88,000 people worldwide and has operations in more than 70 countries. For more information, visit www.3M.com or follow @3MNews on Twitter.

3M and Command are trademarks of 3M Company. Scotch is a registered trademark of 3M Company.

Inprela CommunicationsJenna Paulus, 612-677-2022Jenna@inprela.comor3MConnie Thompson, 651-733-8914