AAMA 810.1 Type I Expanded Cellular Glazing Tape: What the Spec Covers

What it covers

810.1 is the voluntary specification for expanded cellular glazing tape: pre-formed closed-cell foam tape, pressure-sensitive on one or both faces, used to bed and space a lite in a sash or frame. The specification defines the category and the property requirements a tape has to meet to be described that way, and it divides the category into Type I and Type II.

It is published by FGIA, the alliance formed when AAMA merged with IGMA, and it is voluntary — it becomes binding on a project only because a specification or a system manual names it.

What it does not cover

It does not pick your thickness. That comes from the sash pocket, the glass build and the tolerance stack. It does not certify a product — testing to a voluntary specification is commissioned and reported by the material manufacturer. It does not list a supplier; FGIA's Verified Components List is a separate program with its own testing and re-verification cycle. And it does not settle compatibility with whatever sealant the tape ends up beside; that stays a pairing question under the ASTM C1087 [5] framework.

Where it sits in the AAMA 800 series

The 800 series groups the fenestration sealant and tape specifications. Around 810.1 you will see 806.3 (butyl), 807.3 (non-drying sealants), 808.3 (exterior perimeter sealing compound), and 809.2 and 812 covering further sealant and tape categories. Designations and editions move over time, so confirm the current title in the FGIA store rather than carrying an old spec section forward. [2]

Tape glazing, wet glazing and butyl back-bedding

Tape glazing puts a pre-formed cellular tape in as bedding and spacer in one part: clean, dimensionally repeatable, and the normal choice for shop glazing in volume. Wet glazing uses a gunnable sealant per ASTM C920 [7] where the joint moves, the geometry is irregular, or the attachment is engineered. Butyl back-bedding with Poly-Seal® butyl tape is the non-curing option for metal-to-metal and panel bedding, where the joint has to stay tacky and re-conformable.

Structural glazing spacer duty belongs to the AFTC structural glazing tape family, not to an 810.1 tape.

Plasticizer migration: the pairing to check

Flexible PVC is plasticized, and plasticizer moves. Put a plasticized PVC tape against the wrong sealant and the plasticizer can migrate into the joint, softening it or staining the sightline well after the assembly was made.

No rule of thumb resolves this: verify the exact tape against the exact sealant through the sealant manufacturer's compatibility program under the ASTM C1087 [5] framework, keep the letter in the submittal, and treat a substitution as a re-verification event. Where the pairing is doubtful, crosslinked polyethylene is the usual alternative.

H-O Products is a converter. H-O buys glazing tape on master rolls and slits, die-cuts, kiss-cuts and kits it to a customer drawing in Winsted, Connecticut, under an ISO 9001:2015 certified quality management system.

H-O does not manufacture the tape, does not run the 810.1 testing, and does not supply wet sealants. Conversion does not change the material's published properties and does not add a certification. What it adds is width, length, corner geometry, liner handling and kitting — slit rolls to the sash width, corner-matched sets, kiss-cut parts on liner, and lot codes tied back to the data sheet the tape shipped against.

What to send: the tape callout as written, the pocket geometry or sash section, the worst-case gap the tape has to absorb, whether the tape faces a sealant, and roll width preferences. What comes back: a recommendation traced to a published TDS, a note where the callout leaves the type or thickness open, a flag on any sealant pairing needing verification under ASTM C1087 [5], and a quote. Typical prototype lead time is 5–10 business days after drawing review, depending on material availability, tooling, and inspection requirements.