PRO Tapes, located in North Brunswick Township, New Jersey, is a manufacturer of pressure sensitive tapes and other specialty materials. They provide products services to a variety of industries, including entertainment, medical, and defense, as well as functioning as an OEM for many recognized brands. The main intent of our visit was to observe the manufacture of the MultiCam Cloth Repair Patch Kit, although we were also given a tour of their entire facility, which consists of 150,000 sq ft of manufacturing and storage/shipping capability.
The first stop in our tour was to check out this Rotary Die Printing Press, which is used to manufacture the MultiCam Cloth Repair Patch Kits. The adhesive-treated MultiCam fabric is pressed by the machine onto the backing paper. This combination is then fed through the die, which cuts the specific shapes for the patches, which are retained on the backing paper. The waste material feeds through the top and is collected on a separate spool. Using this machine, PRO Tapes is capable of producing around 5000 units a day.
The main factory floor featured a wide variety of state-of-the-art equipment, capable of custom slitting, laminating, die-cutting, and printing. To give you somewhat of an idea of their manufacturing capability, they can make slit widths from 6mm to 300mm (.24 in to 11.8 in); core sizes for tape from 1″, 1.5″, and 3″, up to 14″; sheeting up to 300mm x 914mm; and much more. Their machinery is incredibly precise, and some machines are capable of handling the entire process from manufacture to packing of completed products.
This equipment represents an investment on the part of PRO Tapes exceeding $10 million, with their capabilities growing annually.
The PRO Tapes facility also houses an impressive storage warehouse. Rack upon rack fills the warehouse area, along with material components which will eventually be used to manufacture more product. A fair number of products are made to order by PRO Tapes, although they do also house packaged products to meet the demand of their retail and OEM partners.
As an aside, we were told that when PRO Tapes receives MultiCam fabric material, it comes in rolls of this size, showing the volume of material they’ll work with when manufacturing cloth tape and repair patches.
We also had a chance to observe the outbound orders section of the warehouse. The entire section is filled to capacity with product multiple times a day, which is shipped with the same regularity.
In addition to their extensive product offerings for various industries, PRO Tapes produces many products intended for used in the Military/Tactical industry. PRO Tapes is the largest manufacturer source of “100MPH Tape” in the USA, and also offers a range of PRO Cloth Concealment Tape, which is the same as MultiCam Cloth Concealment tape but is offered in 14 base colors and 5 fluorescent colors. PRO Tapes also manufactures PRO non-adhesive Self Fusing Silicone tape, PRO 15 Heavy Duty Grit Tape, PRO 120 High Performance Duct Tape, and PRO Plus Electrical Tape. We also briefly discussed an upcoming product, PRO X-PLO Tape, a double coated demolition tape which is designed specifically for use by Breachers. We’ll have more info on this product as it becomes available.
Chris Falletta – ‘National Director of Sales – Military, Tactical and Outdoor Division’ for PRO Tapes had this to say about their involvement in the Defense and Tactical industries:
Although PRO Tapes has worked on Government and Aerospace contracts directly in the past, in addition to working with many present vendors who sell into the Military, Tactical, and Outdoor markets, over the past two years we have made a concentrated effort to expand our footprint into these markets on a much larger basis. This effort has manifested into our arrangement with Kryptek Outdoor Group, and our recent exclusive agreement with MultiCam brand, to manufacture product with their proprietary patterns, which has brought us to the forefront of this market.
PRO Tapes manufacturing capability is impressive, as is the sheer variety of products they are capable of making. It’s always a treat to see exactly how everyday products are made, especially when it involves mainstays in the Tactical industry, such as 100MPH Tape and Cloth Camouflage Tape. Look forward to future developments from PRO Tapes to be featured here on SSD.
If you’re in the tactical or defense industry, and are interested in utilizing PRO Tapes’ OEM capabilities for your products, you may contact Bob Bullion – Global Sales Manager of Tactical & Outdoor Products Division at bbullion@protapes.com.
www.protapes.com
