Re: aluminum tape adhesive conductivity

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Jim Lux by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>

If you're talking about the aluminum tape used to hook ducting together
(not the fabric duct tape, but the aluminum with adhesive) the quick answer
is NO, the adhesive is an insulator.

However, if you burnish the overlap, you can squeeze the glue out and get a
metal to metal contact.

But, wait, there's more: the aluminum will have a thin aluminum oxide
coating on it, and Al2O3 is a great insulator, so even if you DO squeeze
out the glue, you don't have a conducting contact.

And even more: the voltage is high enough that it punches right through the
aluminum oxide and/or the adhesive.


SO..... the real answer to your question is, it doesn't matter whether the
glue is an insulator.

Numerous posts about this a few weeks ago in the archives...

(There is (expensive) copper foil tape made with a conductive adhesive...
used for EMI shielding, etc.)

Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "Bill Vanyo by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>"
<vanyo-at-echoes-dot-net>
> 
> Considering using aluminum tape to cover a toroid, is the adhesive
> conductive enough so that the conductive surface is essentially
> continuous?
> 
>         - Bill Vanyo