Hi ya'll!!

We do our own tape and reeling for SMT components here, and we've had a few 
problems over the past few weeks with the PSA (pressure sensitive adhesive) 
cover tape that we've been getting. It first started with some reels where 
the cover tape was barely adhering to the carrier tape...in fact, there were 
sections where it would come loose spilling the parts out. So we bought new 
reels of tape and now it sticks too good and doesn't want to peel back when 
the feeders are in the machine so the machine stops all the time.

This is the first time that we've had so many problems with the cover tape, 
and we've been buying this cover tape from the same place for quite a while. 
We use a V-Tek tape and reeler (the low end table top unit) and really 
haven't had much problems with the parts we tape and reel up until recently. 
I don't want to name the vendor of the tape, but I'm wondering if any of you 
all have had similar problems with PSA tape such as we've had? Supposedly, 
this is all fresh PSA tape that is sent to us, will storage conditions affect 
it's performance? I checked the spec's at the web site of where we buy our 
tape from, and they say that the tape can be stored at 70º +/- 30º F., 50% 
+/- 30% humidity, and shelf life is 5-years. Is that really true?

If you want to give me some good brands from your experience, email me 
off-line, I don't want to rile anybody up...

-Steve Gregory-

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