Method of making and using a flexographic plate mounting tape

The present invention relates to adhesive tapes and to methods of making and using the same. More particularly, the present invention contemplates adhesive tapes useful to detachably join elements together, especially at least one flexible element. The tapes are especially useful in printing applications for detachably mounting printing plates in printing presses during printing operations. A double sided tape for detachably mounting a flexible printing plate to a flexographic printing press cylinder includes pressure-sensitive adhesive layers on opposed sides of a coextruded multilayer carrier having a core formed of a thermoplastic elastomer containing a uniform distribution of voids and one or more skin layers formed of film-forming thermoplastic polymer. The cellular thermoplastic elastomer is constructed to accommodate compressibility loads imposed during printing and to resist shear and tensile loads imposed during tape removal.