Taber

equipment used to measure the stiffness of paper. See also stiffness.

tack

the property od a pressure sensitive adhesive which causes it to adhere to a substrate with a minimum of pressure and time.

tack range

the time during which an adhesive remains tacky.

tackifier

a material added to an adhesive to improve the initial and extended tack range of the adhesive.

tackiness

the stickiness of the adhesive while in the stage of drying.

tactified acrylic adhesive

acrylic adhesives to which tactifying agents were added. The tactifying agents boost quick stick of the acrylic adhesive.

tamper evident

see tamperproof.

tamper-evident label

a pressure sensitive label construction made of materials that will partially distruct, indicating that a package, label or container has been tampered with.

tamperproof

destructible. a pressure sensitive material which can not be removed intact from a substrate and reused.

tamperproof label

a pressure sensitive construction made with a face stock having a low strength so that attempted removal of the label will usually result in destruction of the label. In recent years this type of label is named tamper-evident rather than tamperproof. Tamper-evident labels are designed for the same purpose, but the name recognizes the difficulty in designing anything that is totally tamperproof.

TAPPI

an abbreviation for Technical Association of the Paper and Pulp Industry.

TC

abbreviation for top coating. See top coating.

TC Thermal

a face stock that is direct thermal coated and has a protective top coating. The protective top coating improves its resistance to image darkening from various liquids.

TCS

Transport Case Symbol.

tear

tear strength is tested to determine the uniformity of refining, the length and formation of fibers in paper. The strength can be important to the printer or converter. Elmendorf tearing tester is the test instrument. Normally testing is done machine direction and cross direction. See also Elmendorf, machine direction and cross direction.

Tedlar(r)

dupont's trademark for biaxially oriented polyvinyl fluoride. a durable, chemical resistant, protective film.

Telepen

a continuous bar code which encodes the full ASCII character set.

telescoping

a sideways sliding of label layers from a wound roll that gives a funnel or telescope appearance.

tensile strength

indicates the amount of pull necessary to break the paper. It is measured in machine direction MD and cross machine direction CD. Generally this is a measure of paper strength. It is measured numerically and the higher the number the stronger the paper. Minimum MD and CD tensile strength standards are set for all incoming papers.

Texoprint(r)

a Kimberly-Clark base stock that is latex impregnated. It differs from Duraform(r) Latex by heavier weight and a greater amount of latex impregnation. Texoprint(r) is more durable than latex, but is more expensive.

Thermage

a trademark for a decorating process for plastic which transfers the image of a label to the object under the influence of heat and light pressure.

Thermal

A printing system where dots are selectively heated and cooled on heat sensitive paper. The paper turns dark in the heated areas.

thermal transfer

a type of non impact printing in which heat is applied to a wax or resin ribbon. The ribbon transfers ink to paper. Eliminates the problems of fading or changing color inherent in thermal.

thermoplastic

capable of being melted or deformed by the application of heat.

thermosetting adhesives

adhesives which set up or harden when heated.

thickness

the distance from one side of the material to the other. This is another term for caliper or gauge.

tie coat

one layer of a coating system used to improve the adhesion of adjacent or succeeding coats.

tilt

rotation of a bar code symbol about an axis perpendicular to the substrate.

tipping

a process of applying a piggy back label to a business form automatically. Frequently piggy back labels are automatically applied with Label Aire labeling heads that are part of larger equipment that insures that the label will apply in the same place on each form.

tolerance

the specified allowance for deviations in weighing, measuring, etc. or deviations from the standard dimensions or weight. Most coating properties have a target value, a low acceptable tolerance and a high acceptable tolerance.

Toluene

a commercial solvent used in the manufacture of some water sensitive adhesives, particularly dry gum.

topcoat

a surface treatment or coating on the surface of a material which enhances ink receptivity.

top coating

a coating done on top of a face stock to improve ink receptivity, or to make the label more durable. Nitrocellulose is used as a top coating for offset printing. Acrylic top coated material will not offset print well. On the other hand, acrylic top coatings are compatible with both water based and solvent flexo inks. Top coating on direct thermal protects the label from liquids that could darken the image. Some films are also top coated to enhance printing characteristics.

trademarks

A number of trademarks appear in this help file. They include. Texoprint(r), Duraform(r), Kimdura(r) and Satin-L(r) are trademarks of Kimberly-Clark Corporation. Tyvek(r) is a trademark of Dupont. Opticite(r) is a registered trademark of the Dow Chemical Company. Die Life II(r) is a registered trademark of Miami Valley Papers. NCR Paper(tm) is a trademark of NCR Corporation licensed to Appleton Papers, Inc. Microsoft(r), Windows(r) and Microsoft Access(r) are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries.

transfer tape

a pressure sensitive tape with a liner release coated on both sides. It is applied to a plain paper and the adhesive transfers to the plain paper. Eventually the end user removes the liner and the adhesive stays with the paper to which the transfer tape was attached. The end product is similar to strip coated pressure sensitive. While transfer tape is expensive on a MSI basis, the user needs less of it than if he bought a strip coated construction.

translucent

transmitting light in a diffuse manner so that objects beyond cannot be clearly distinguished.

transparency

that property of a material which transmits light so that objects can be directly seen through the material.

trim

the maximum width of finished paper which can be made on a particular machine. It also refers to material cut off the edges of rolls.

truckload

40,000 lb. shipments usually make up a truckload in water or heat sensitive paper. Users of roll pressure sensitive usually consider a shipment of 140 MMSI a truckload. Sometimes this is abbreviated TL or T/L.

tunneling

a defect occurring when laminates are incompletely bonded. It is characterized by release of longitudinal portions of the substrate and deformation of these portions to form tunnel-like structures.

Type L

a designation for U.L. approval which indicates that U.L. tested the label material on stainless steel and found that it could not be removed with out label destruction. See also UL

Tyvek(r)

Dupont's trademark for spunbonded polyolefin material frequently used as a facestock where very high tensile strength is required.