Monday, August 04, 2008

Busted!? 3M Polyurethane Protective Tape 8674 used for Zagg invisibleSHIELD, BodyGuardz, Best Skins Ever...

After a bit of internet searching, 3M's Polyurethane Protective Tape 8674 looks like the "military" material behind the products being sold as Zagg's invisibleSHIELD, BodyGuardz and Best Skins Ever. 3M's wet installation instructions match those vendors' installation instructions and the 3M instructions also include a drawing that looks very much like the vendors' marketing photographs. For the cost of one shield from these companies, you can buy an entire roll of the tape and then cut shields for your whole tribe. That's the downside - you'll have to cut your own shapes. Fortunately, blue-ember.com posted a pdf template for an iPhone skin. Several other shapes are shown on the vendors' sites, however, those might be copyrighted images.

Good luck with your skins and shields.

8 comments:

Phillip said...

Hahaha... good try, there, friend. :) As a former employee of ZAGG, I can tell you with ABSOLUTE, complete honesty that they film they use is NOT 3M film. Other companies may use 3M, but ZAGG uses a film that NO other competitor has access to.

M.W. said...

Thanks for the followup. It encouraged me to check ZAGG's Annual Report where they said "We do not own proprietary rights with respect to the film we use in our products." BestSkinsEver's FAQ also says that their material is the "same thing" as the other shield vendors'. The military research on protecting helicopter blades with polyurethane seems to be from the 60's so multiple vendors probably manufacture the film now.

Hmmm, if you're a former employee, perhaps you can share more details about ZAGG's supplier. ;-)

M.W. said...

The US Army TB-1-1615-351-23 Rotor Blade Erosion Protection Manual says that they use 3M Polyurethane Protective Tape 8663 for rotor blade protection, however, the 8674 variant seems more appropriate for skin/shield use because it's thinner and has the "best clarity".

Phillip said...

No, unfortunately I can't share any "specifics", as I'm still under some pretty heavy non-disclosure policies (and the guys there follow almost everything that's ever said on the nets about their company!)

That's very interesting about the Army manual, though! I've never heard about that. I do know, however, that no one else is able to use the same film as ZAGG. Not even BestSkinsEver, whatever they may claim.

Unknown said...

Mark I am just wondering if you ever got any further on figuring out what film Zagg uses?

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

What kind of protective film military is using that will not be used by anyone else.

LSG Industrial & Office Products, Inc. said...

3M Scotch-Weld Tamper Proof Sealant EC-1252 for aerospace use.