The Tek Pak Story
Tek Pak was founded in 1992 by executives from the thermoforming industry to produce specialized electronics packaging known as carrier tape. Tek Pak’s first carrier tape producing machine was built in the home garage of one of the partners. Shortly thereafter, Tek Pak moved into its current facility in Batavia, IL and began shipping product locally.
In 1996, Tek Pak introduced the industry-changing 72-hour prototyping service for carrier tape, which opened opportunities around the world. By providing new carrier tape designs quickly to the burgeoning electronics and telecommunications markets, Tek Pak became known as the company that provides high-quality custom carrier tapes rapidly.
It was indeed a heady time for Tek Pak in the 1990’s, experiencing double-digit growth year after year. Tek Pak was producing custom carrier tape for end users like Motorola and Ericsson and shipping significant amounts of carrier tape to Asia as well. By 1997, 30% of Tek Pak’s business was export and Tek Pak won an SBA Exporter of the Year Award for that achievement. In 1999 Tek Pak was awarded U.S. Patent# 6,003,676 for the NITRO® brand of carrier tape. Tek Pak’s manufacturing plant in Lindesberg, Sweden opened in 1999 to serve the European telecommunication market.
By 2000, Tek Pak had expanded to over 110 employees and $10MM in annual sales. Late in 2000 the triple play of the dot-com bust, the Y2K bubble and the restructuring of the telecommunications market combined with the migration of electronics manufacturers to Asia led to a significant reduction in Tek Pak’s business in the US and Europe. The early 2000’s for Tek Pak was a time of restructuring and diversification. Tek Pak expanded the tooling department and began offering prototype and production tooling to the general thermoforming market with a concentration on prototype medical device packaging. Tek Pak also began offering precision thermoformed plastic components for the electronics industry. By mid-decade, Tek Pak had changed the product mix from 95% carrier tape to 50% carrier tape sales, and successfully weathered the worldwide transformation of the electronics supply chain.
In 2005 Tek Pak obtained ISO 9001 Certification and installed our first laser trimmer in 2007.
Tek Pak is aligned to be a design and development centric organization with a great depth of knowledge and plastic forming expertise that can design and develop intricate packages as well as functional parts. With space at the Batavia facility outgrown to support the growth for the new product lines in 2008 Tek Pak acquired a new facility for product development and new product manufacturing in St. Charles, IL. Operations at this facility include development work for advancements in thermoforming of flexible films and other exotic plastics from 2 – 90 mil; from the very thin to layered materials, engineered resins to commodity resins. High temp materials including Ultem and polycarbonate. Equipped with high tech equipment to run high performances films.
Quality never goes on sale, so one needs to invest in it!
In 2009, Tek Pak became the exclusive North American distributor for Singapore-based C-Pak, the largest carrier tape manufacturer in the world, and opened a distribution center in San Jose, CA to support that alliance. Also, in 2009, the 2nd largest domestic producers of carrier tape had ceased all manufacturing operations in the US, leaving Tek Pak as the largest manufacturer of carrier tape in North America and well positioned to capture additional market share.
Markets and product lines continued to expand and in 2012 Tek Pak purchased it first Kiefel thermoformer, in 2014 received ISO 13485 certification, and in 2017 added our 12th CNC and celebrated 25 years in the thermoforming industry under the Tek Pak brand.
To meet the demands of the expanding healthcare markets in thermoform packaging and a clear sign of Tek Pak’s continued growth and penetration into new and expanding markets is the company’s 2018 expansion to add a third manufacturing facility in St Charles Il. with 34,000 square feet, installation of a 2nd Kiefel and relocating all thermoform operations under one roof to focus the thermoform division as a business unit.
In 2018, Tek Pak remains a closely held private corporation with 3 facilities in the western Chicago suburbs, a distribution center in Silicon Valley. Tek Pak is proud to offer over 100 employee’s good jobs in the US manufacturing sector. Tek Pak continues to export to 15+ countries worldwide with over $16MM in total annual sales primarily in the electronics and healthcare markets.
Certifications
ISO 9001:2015 Certification
Tek Pak, Inc.’s ISO 9001:2015 registration is with Eagle Registrations, Inc.. and includes both the main manufacturing facility in Batavia, IL and the new R&D center, 3 miles north in St. Charles, IL. Please view our certificate. We look forward to now serving our customers with a certified quality management system in place for all of our major product lines.
FSSC22000 Implementation
Tek Pak, Inc. is currently working toward FSSC22000 certification. FSSC22000 is a food safety system based on the ISO 22000 and ISO 22002-4 standards for food packaging manufacturers. This system stresses the use of good manufacturing practices and hazard reduction to eliminate the risk of product contamination.
Associations/Affiliations
Membership Affiliations
(SPE) Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME)
