In 1923, Kamoi Kakoshi started its business by manufacturing flypaper (paper tapes with glue, used to catch flies). The technique for manufacturing flypaper was utilized to start manufacturing masking tapes. Currently, Kamoi manufactures and sells more than 35 types of masking tape, including the mt series, for commercial use. Masking tapes were first produced in the United States in 1925. However, Kamoi is the first one that has used rice paper for masking tapes.
Now, we will show you how the colors and textures of masking tapes are created through this factory tour.
Various different natural and synthetic rubbers from Malaysia and other countries are the materials used to produce glue for masking tapes. They seem hard and solid, but they are elastic materials that you can easily press with your fingers. Each of them weighs approximately 100kg.
A large cutter is used to slice the rubber blocks into 5mm pieces in order to break the fibers so that the rubbers will dissolve easily in the solvent. The combination of different types of rubber determines the adhesive abilities of the masking tapes. We therefore blend different rubbers depending on the desired level of adhesiveness. This blending process is the know-how of Kamoi, and is the key in achieving the high quality of adhesion in their products.
The rubber blocks, sliced in 5mm loafs, are kneaded. Here, materials for glue, including natural and synthetic rubbers, are mixed together. The rubber blocks which seemed rather hard are blended, and become soft.
At the end of the blending process, a type of resin is added, and the mixture of rubber and resin are agitated while heated.
As raw materials go through a series of processes, they turn into glue and the glue production process will be completed. The glue provides masking tapes with their adhesive property. The rubber compound is not the only type of glue used. Acrylic type glue is also available. Out of all other types of masking tapes, mt is the one that uses acrylic type glue.
The rice paper that comes out of the upper part of the machine immediately after the dyeing process will move to the glue application process. Finally, in this process the glue is applied to the backside of the rice paper. During the glue application, the stripping agent is coated on the surface of the tape so that the tape wrapping the core can be pulled out smoothly.
15 meters of rice paper tapes with glue on their backsides, and stripping agent on their front sides, are wrapped up into a core. After that the tapes are gathered by color.
The “mt” will be carried to our main factory, 20 minutes apart from the tape factory, for finishing. Forklifts carry the “mt” into the warehouse.
The tapes are cut into desired sizes using a cutting machine. After cutting, the rolls of tapes will look like the masking tapes that you see in shops.
After the quality of each roll of tapes is checked, several rolls of tape are packed together. The vivid colored tapes look like flowers in the factory.
Now the tapes are ready for shipment. It’s so exciting to imagine how these tapes will be used by our customers.
