Learn how to choose the best floor marking tape for your facility from this guide to keep both workers and visitors safe from danger.
When working in any kind of facility, safety always comes first. This is why companies need to take precautions to keep their workers and visitors away from any form of harm.
There are several tools that firms can use inside their facilities to maintain proper security and safety. One of these useful tools is floor marking tape. Although it might not seem like much at first, floor marking tape is worth every penny spent on it.
That being said, purchasing the appropriate type of tape for your needs is essential to call the investment a success. In this article, you’ll learn how to choose the best floor marking tape for your facility.
The Purpose of Floor Marking Tape
If you’re wondering about how to choose floor marking tape for your facility, the first thing you need to do is find out the purpose of the tape. Some of the key reasons for using floor marking tape are below.
Guide to Emergency Exits
During emergencies, it is important that any worker or guest can immediately identify the route to the nearest exit. Floor marking tape will prove effective for this job as the right kind will immediately draw attention and will be able to guide people to the exit through the safest route.
Furthermore, it is not unusual to have a power outage during incidents such as a fire emergency. So, a floor marking tape of the right kind will help people to see the exit route in the dark and find their way to safety.
A Pathfinding Guide
The exits are not the only thing that floor marking tape should lead to. When you’re working or visiting a facility, the floor marking tape should guide you to the desired part of the facility. It should also provide information about the current area you’re in.
Facility Organization
Floor signs and printed marking tape can also be used to indicate different parts of a facility such as the storage hold, walking path, lanes for forklifts, etc. Additionally, different colors of tape can indicate different things to reduce confusion.
For example, the color pink is a symbol of fragility, so it can be used to mark areas where easy-to-break items such as glass products are kept. In contrast, the color red can indicate signs of danger and is used to mark hazardous areas.
How to Choose the Best Tape For Your Facility
Now that we have talked about the different purposes, it’s time to talk about how to choose the best floor marking tape for your facility.
Below are the factors that you should consider before investing in floor marking tape. A lot of your choice will depend on the purpose and the areas of the factory or facility that need to have the floor marked with tape.
1. Texture
If your workspace has been facing the issue of people slipping in certain areas, then you should try using anti-slip tape. This tape has a coarse texture and adds traction so that people do not slip easily.
Anti-slip tape is available in different colors and it even has a glow-in-the-dark option as well.
2. Durability
There are floor marking tapes suitable for both high-traffic and low-traffic areas. For high-traffic areas, choose a floor marking tape with a PVC film so that when you drag heavy types of machinery across it, it won’t leave any marks behind.
Aisle tape is good for high-traffic areas in your facility.
Moreover, when you’re in the market for floor marking tape, you should also consider whether the tape would be used indoors or outdoors for maximum durabilirty.
You’ll need high-longevity tape in the areas of the facility where heavy goods are loaded and unloaded. Plus, the same kind of tape will be ideal for areas near the lifts.
However, the indoor areas of a factory where the floors aren’t exposed to environmental conditions like water, UV light, or extreme temperatures can do with normal floor marking tape. These areas don’t need high-longevity marking tape.
3. Specific Areas
Are there some parts in your facility that are low-lit or experience frequent power outages? Then, a floor marking tape that glows in the dark is perfect for preventing panic and accidents in the dark.
If you need to highlight different areas, machinery, pathways, or even people, then the reflective tape should be your choice of floor marking tape. This is a great purchase if you need to highlight a certain part of the facility or even yourself in low-light areas. Furthermore, sticking some to yourself makes you easily detectable, and so accidents are less likely to occur.
4. Traffic Flow and Weight
For areas where there’s a heavy and high traffic flow of both people and types of machinery like forklifts, you should choose aisle tape. It’s a durable kind of tape that can withstand high loads and pressure.
5. Tape with Messages
Are you in need of some noticeable signs that attract people’s attention? Then you should purchase some floor sign tapes. This is a special type of floor marking tape that can have messages printed on it.
If you need a directional guide, a warning for restricted areas, or danger indicators, then creating a sign with tape will fulfill this objective with ease.
6. Additional Communication
If you wish to communicate with your workers and offer guidance inside the facility, then you should use floor marking tape with a different method. Create different shapes with floor marking tape such as no-entry signs, footprints for directions, and even for maintaining distance between each other with circles as used during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Conclusion
To conclude, floor marking tape is available in a wide variety of styles, and each can serve a unique purpose, making it an excellent investment for your company. Not only does it help avoid confusion, but it also keeps people safe.
There is truly no downside to using such a simple yet effective tool! We hope that this article taught you how to choose floor marking tape for your facility to have a safer work environment.
FAQs
1. Where to Buy Floor Marking Tape?
Floor marking tape can easily be bought online on popular e-commerce sites. You can also find them at a local tools shop. Retail stores may also have them, but you might have fewer options available there.
2. How to Apply The Tape?
Installing floor marking tape is as simple as using regular tape. Take off the protective coating and start applying the tape according to your needs. Take it slow to be accurate. Furthermore, make sure that the floor is clean before you start.
