How to apply floor marking tape?

If you ever when to a shopping complex or a metro station. You will come across bright coloured lines in yellow or sometimes you will find yellow and black stripes or when you enter a prohibited space, you see boundaries made of red strips.

But why, did it ever occur to you that why are those lines there? Why do some areas are marked with some particular colour only? If you want to know about all this, you have come to the right place.

In this article, we will talk about all the things that you need to know about the Floor marking tape.

Starting from what a floor tape then we will discuss the importance of Floor marking after that we will talk about the criteria for using colored floored tapes then at last we will talk about how to apply a floor marking tape to the required surface.

What is the meaning of Floor Marking Tape?

Floor Marking tape is an adhesive tape that is used to mark the surface of an industrial as hazardous, or prohibited, or to provide navigation information.

It is also used to mark other surfaces like walls. The floor tapes are available in multiple colours which give us information about different types of purposes.

Why is Aisle marking important?

Aisle marking is important to ensure the safety of people and employees. When we talk about the places that require floor marking, we think of warehouses which are filled with huge cartons and big machines.

If you ever paid attention to the marking on a floor of a factory or a warehouse, you will notice the boundaries are yellow coloured and but why not in some other colour like pink or white?

All these things are decided by a government organization called OSHA which stands for Occupational Safety & Health Administration. It originated in the USA to inspect and make rules and regulations for the workplace.

But where does a floor tape make sense in all this? What these tapes do is, that they aware the people and provide clear information to all so that we can avoid the possibility of mishaps as much as possible.

This is why floor marking or aisle marking tape plays an important role in ensuring the rules and regulations that are set by OSHA.

The OSHA regulations are a set of mandatory rules that should be followed by all workplaces. One of the rules is to give all the employees training so that it reduces the chances of injuries caused due to ignorance.

You can find information on the 5s floor marking tape standards on our other blog. In this one, we will talk about the colour code of OSHA.

What is floor marking tape used for?

Before we apply the tapes and know about the colour & their meaning. We must know the right way to place them so that they create a clean and organised look, not a cluttered and confusing outlook that using too much tape would give. In order to make things clear and organised OSHA has made rules to mark these places that are written down below:

• Aisles

Aisles are the narrow pathways that are between two areas. Thou the width of the aisles differ from place to place but ideally, the width of the aisle should be 3 or 4 ft wider than the biggest movable machine in the workplace.

• Storage areas

Storage spaces are found in every warehouse. But it is a wise move to dedicate a certain area for storage. So that we know which areas are used and mark them. So that people do not keep the storage items here and there which will block the aisle.

• Hazards

This is another important way to use industrial floor marking that will help in the identification of hazardous stuff. As alerting people is the only way to prevent mishaps when working in such conditions is unavoidable.

• Electrical equipment

Electrical equipment in factories and warehouses is mostly marked with warnings of high voltages which are extremely important to have. You can find such places marked with black and yellow striped tape.

• Separate paths for vehicles and pedestrians.

When we are considering big warehouses and factories it is compulsory to mark different routes for people and vehicles. The accidents between these two are lethal and life-threatening. It is best to keep them on separate paths to avoid accidents.

What are the 7 safety colours for floor marking?

Now that we understand the need and importance to mark the aisle and floor. We will head to understand the colour marking scheme that is given by OSHA themselves.

Yellow - To mark boundaries

White - to identify the storage location for racks, vehicles, benches etc

Red - To mark firefighting equipment

Orange - To mark things that need an inspection

Green - To highlight safety equipment

Blue - To mark raw material

Green - To mark finished good

Black - To mark goods in the process of making/manufacturing

Red & white - For highlighting emergency access

Bright orange/orange or Red - To Alert people of Bio-hazardous areas

Yellow & black stripes - To mark areas that can cause physical harm or health risk to employees.

How do you install floor tape?

After reading about where and which coloured tape to be used it is. The only thing that is left to discuss is how to apply this tape. Which is an easy task down below we have written the steps to install the floor tape.

1. Clean the areas where you want to install tape and make sure that you do not have any dust or remains of old tape.
2. Mark the areas which you need to tape.
3. Pull the tape open and apply it on the floor with little tension to make sure it does not have any bubbles left.
4. After sticking it on the surface make sure to press it down for strong bonding.

And you are done!

To wrap it

In this blog, we had a deep discussion about floor marking tape. We have discussed what a floor marking tape is and why is aisle marking important. After this, we mentioned the place where we can use it and how to use it according to the OSHA guidelines and standards.

And at last, we have talked about how to apply floor marking tape in the right way and we have discussed almost everything that one must know about floor marking tapes.