Transfer tape can be quite temperamental depending on the season, taping experience, and application style. Humidity levels tend to drop over winter due to heaters and drier air indoors, causing tape adhesive levels to drop too. Nothing that a little of experimentation can't change.

Try this taping technique. Express Sign Products always recommends that sign shops weed their graphics, roll out the tape sticky side up, roll or place the graphics face down onto the tape, and squeegee graphics firmly on to the adhesive-side-up tape. Once finished squeegeeing, roll/peel the liner paper off at a sharp angle leaving the graphics and tape laying face up until application time.

Besides the season and taping style, other things can influence the effectiveness of transfer tape. Sometimes application tape doesn't pick up the vinyl because the vinyl is aggressively stuck to the silicone liner. Two possibilities are at play. Some vinyl manufacturers are known for tight release liners (we won't mention any names, Orafol). If you're unfamiliar with Orafol products, we recommend starting with high tack application tape and the taping technique mentioned above. In other (less common) instances, the liner paper has low silicone saturation. Low silicone saturation makes the vinyl stick extremely aggressively to the liner paper, creating lift challenges. Although it looks like the transfer tape has lost its adhesion, it actually has to do with the liner. The vinyl manufacturer is at fault in these instances. The tape tack level is just fine. To rule out faulty transfer tape, test it on multiple vinyls and liner papers.

If we take tape back, we test it and most times the defective claim is a result of one of the reasons above. Very, very rarely, a tape manufacturer has sent us tape produced near the end of a production run that has lower tack levels. This doesn’t happen often, maybe once or twice out of one hundred apparent adhesion problems.

To recap, here the reasons for poor transfer tape adhesion in point form:

1. Winter. Lower humidity produces lower tackiness.
2. Taping technique. Poor technique or little experience can reduce effectiveness.
3. Vinyl brand. Some companies' vinyl sticks to liner paper harder than others.
4. Liner paper. Faulty liner paper can disguise itself as a tape problem.
5. Faulty transfer tape. Extremely rarely, transfer tape adhesive is faulty.