When a case erector forms a carton, it has to close the bottom — and that single decision drives a surprising amount of your packaging cost. Tape and hot-melt glue are both proven methods, but they differ in material cost, strength, appearance, and machine complexity. Choosing wrong means paying more per carton for years.

How Each Method Works

Bottom taping applies pressure-sensitive tape across the bottom seam. It is simple, visible, and easy for operators to understand, but the tape itself is a recurring consumable with a real cost per carton.

Hot-melt gluing sprays or extrudes molten adhesive onto the flaps, then presses them closed. The glue bond is fast, strong, and cheaper per carton than tape — but the machine needs a heated glue system that must be cleaned and maintained.

Head-to-Head Comparison

Cost Is a Volume Question

Tape looks cheap until you multiply it by millions of cartons. At high volume, hot-melt glue is almost always the lower-cost-per-carton choice, because a bead of adhesive costs a fraction of a strip of tape. The crossover point depends on your carton count and tape price, but for mass production the math usually favors glue.

When Each Method Wins

• Choose bottom taping for low-to-mid volume, frequent size changes, lighter cartons, and shops that want simple, low-maintenance equipment.
• Choose hot-melt glue for high volume, heavier or heavier-stacked cartons, e-commerce boxes that must survive transit, and brands that want a clean, tape-free presentation.

The Practical Decision

Start with three numbers: annual carton volume, typical carton weight, and your per-carton budget. Then match the method — and the machine — to those numbers. For most high-volume operations, hot-melt glue wins on cost and strength. For flexible, lower-volume lines, taping’s simplicity is hard to beat.

Either way, the sealing method is not a detail. It is one of the few packaging decisions you will feel on every single carton, every single day.