Tape or hot-melt glue? A cost comparison for carton sealing

The choice between tape and hot-melt glue is usually made on habit rather than numbers. Both are legitimate; the crossover point is roughly 8,000 cartons per month for a 400 mm carton.

Tape costs about 0.012 EUR per carton at 60 mm width, two strips. Hot-melt costs about 0.004 EUR per carton in glue, plus a glue unit that adds 1,800–2,500 EUR to the machine price.

Below the crossover, tape wins on total cost and is easier to maintain. Above it, glue wins and also gives a tamper-evident seal that tape cannot match.

A third factor is recyclability: mono-material cartons with water-based glue are easier to recycle than tape-sealed cartons, which matters increasingly in the EU market.