How it connects
The faces are pressed together over an overlap; hooks catch the loops and hold in shear, released by peeling. No seal; holding force scales with overlap area. Reusable for many cycles.
Male and female halves
Two halves: the hook (stiff, scratchy) side and the loop (soft, fuzzy) side. Back-to-back tape has hook on one face and loop on the other, so a single strap mates with itself; self-engaging/hook-to-hook types are genderless.
Usually connects to
- Complementary hook or loop face, on another strip/flap or the same strap
- Itself on back-to-back/One-Wrap tape around a cable, cord or hose bundle
- Compatible cinch buckle or D-ring
Common sizes
- Tape widths about 3/8–4 in (10–100 mm), commonly 1/2, 5/8, 3/4, 1, 1.5 or 2 in; sold as strips, dots/coins, wraps and rolls cut to length.
- Strap widths commonly 0.5–2 in (12.7–50.8 mm), lengths 6–48 in (150–1200 mm). One example is 24 in × 1-1/4 in (31.75 mm).
- For bundles, check usable adjustable circumference as well as strap width/length.
Where it is used
cable and hose bundling; industrial hose and wire bundling; cable managementapparel and footwearbags and strapsmedical bracesupholstery and coversWall mountingHome and office organizationSecuring removable objects; audio/visual and stage wiring; telecommunications and networking
Variations
- Sew-on or adhesive-backed tape
- Back-to-back/One-Wrap strap
- Plastic/metal ring or buckle cinch
- Elastic/premade cinch or cut-to-length strap kit
- Self-engaging hook/mushroom-head closure, such as VELCRO LOK or 3M Dual Lock
How to recognise it
A flat woven tape strip; one face shows a dense field of small plastic hooks (rough to touch), the other a fuzzy pile of loops. Cinch straps often have a plastic buckle or slot at one end and are wrapped so the strap overlaps itself.
Often confused with
| Confused with | How to tell them apart |
|---|---|
| Snap fastener / press stud | Snaps are discrete metal or plastic studs at points; hook and loop is a continuous fuzzy/scratchy textile surface. |
| Reclosable mushroom fastener (3M Dual Lock) | Dual Lock has rigid plastic mushroom stems on both sides that click together audibly; hook and loop has a soft loop side. |
| Standard cable tie (zip tie) | Zip ties are single-use ratcheting plastic straps; hook-and-loop cinch straps are reusable fabric fasteners with a buckle. |
| One-piece slotted hook-and-loop cable tie | Slotted ties pass through a punched fabric slit rather than an integrated rigid plastic or metal cinch buckle/ring. |
| Carabiner connection | The carabiner is a separate gated hook; this interface is the flexible loop around the bundle. |
Also called
touch fastenerback-to-back (one-wrap) hook and loop; sticky-back hook-and-loop tapeself-adhesive hook-and-loop fastenerhook and loop cinch strap; hook-and-loop cable strap; cinch-ring cable straphook-and-loop cable tie with bucklereusable bundling strapburr fastenerVelcro closure
Good to know
Not a rigid or sealing connection, and not a fitting or port in the usual sense. The connection is the overlap between hook and loop faces; on the sample part (1.5 in back-to-back cinch tape) it is genderless because the strap mates with itself. Holding force depends on how much overlaps, not on a fixed geometry.
Related connections
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