Author Archives: Proflight Bags

The Secrets to Cylinder Covers

Cylinder covers seem a pretty basic thing to manufacture… its just a cylinder of fabric right?

Well we would have to disagree, we see our cylinder covers as potentially live saving pieces of equipment to our emergency services. Meaning each item is subject to a quality review and has a few additional extras to make the things easier and quicker for our rescue teams.

Covers are manufactured in 680gsm PVC which is flame retardant, a vital quality in this case! Covers are made to order meaning we can manufacture in most standard colours, we also can print logos or text onto the cover on individual requests.

Each cover is shaped to fit the cylinders snuggly with a zip which is the full length of the cover to make inserting and removing the cylinder as quick and easy as possible. Another handy addition to our cylinder covers is a small printed panel. One side of the panel saying “full” the other saying “empty” the user simply Velcro’s this to the appropriate side for an instant visual notification of whether the cylinder is fit for use at this time.

Proflight endeavours to continually improve and develop its products to offer the best protection and solution to our emergency services. We are ready and waiting for the next development to further improve our long-standing cylinder cover solution.

 

 

Why PVC?

You’ll notice quite a few of the proflight products are made from a PVC material. Let us guide you through why this is!

Firstly, this isn’t just any PVC. We work with a high grade of PVC which is flame retardant. The PVC we usually work with is 680gsm – gsm been short for grams per square metre. The 680gsm means this is a very heavy and dense fabric which at times can be tricky to work with but produces fantastic solutions.

The PVC lends itself well to industrial applications due to its finish. The shiny finish often associated with PVC is perfect for keeping the bags clean with most scuffs and marks simply wiping away with a damp cloth.

This material also gives us the capability to personalise our products to any design a customer requires. Usually we print a company logo onto the fabric which is applied by heat press to the PVC.

The PVC available to us is also perfect for creating our range of structured bags. Its robust nature provides the perfect fabric to sit over a structured bag shape. If you’d like to know more or see any samples please give the Proflight team a call.

A selection of our PVC products are pictured below:

TV’s SuperVet Big Bow

SuperVet, Noel Fitzpatrick has recently opened a spectacular new referrals centre. Noel has become known as the SuperVet for his ingenious outside the box ways of patching up our poorly pets. The shiny new referrals centre is a UK first in that is designed to treat cancer in our small house pets.

The Proflight team took a few days off from the usual work on bags and covers to engineer a big bow solution for the opening of the new veterinary referrals centre. The Proflight team have created similar items before to wrap car showrooms and other buildings, usually as part of a customer’s Christmas campaign.

In this case the bow was made by our wonderful machinists to match the Fitzpatrick Referrals colours and with matching gift tag style label for the bow. This job caused quite a stir in the sewing room as we have quite a few animal lovers who had watched Noel in action. One of the early problems we had was achieving a good colour match for the Fitzpatrick blue.  Once we had the appropriate colour and material specification we were able to begin creating the bow which will wrap the new building.

The finished bow wrapped the modern glass fronted building beautifully and provided the perfect opportunity for dog loving celebrity, Chris Evans to come and declare the surgery open. Chris Evans arrived armed with the scissors to declare the immaculate new surgery open, following a short speech Chris cut part of the ribbon to officially open the new premises.

These big bow products create a fantastic spectacle and a real buzz around your event. The bow’s have been spotted at various events and are ideal for a big day… that’s why they’re big bows! The team here at Proflight have become established in the design and manufacture of these bow’s for most occasions.

Headphone Case for Flare Audio

Flare are quite new onto the headphone scene but don’t let that fool you! The team at Flare Audio have in the past been dubbed the re-inventors of the loudspeaker and have since turned their attention to creating a new breed of high quality headphones.

Proflight were selected to manufacture these tiny covers for the innovative new headphones. With an impressive price tag of £175.00 (and that’s for the basic specification) the cover is an essential part of the product in ensuing these headphones stay in pristine condition.

Admittedly this was an unusual one for Proflight, we generally work with much larger bags and heavier grade materials. However, we are really pleased with the results and are in a phase of prototyping for Flare’s larger headphones (stay tuned). The minimalist design is perfect, complete with zip pull for ease and our favourite a small Velcro tab which when placed around the wires prevents them becoming tangled.

Proflight wish the Flare Audio team the best of luck with their new venture and if previous products are anything to go by we’ll all be saving up for these headphones. They provide “distortion free, pressure-balanced IEM in-ear earphones” – we weren’t entirely sure what that means but the pair we had for testing the cases certainly produced amazing sound. Personally, I know they put my headphones to shame, it was like listening to different digitally enhance music!

Check out Flare Audio’s website and Kickstarter pages for more information.

Utilities Week Live 2015

E72-Proflight-Bags-#UWLIVEWhat a great show! We had a fantastic time at this year’s Utilities Week Live and are really hopeful we might have some exciting new ideas in the pipeline in the future! We enjoyed a short walk around the show to explore the wider market and it has been brilliant to visit a new show for Proflight Bags.

It was certainly a tiring week that had taken plenty of planning but the event didn’t disappoint. Utilities Week Live managed to draw in a steady crowd for all 3 days of the event, meaning a nice consistent steam of enquiries for us… as well as plenty of competition entries.

Our sister company Banner Box had printed a wonderful bright and bold stand which we think really made Proflight Bags an eye catcher! (If you would like to find out more about how the exhibition stands are made please click here). The fabulous stand and our little rubber ducks competition proved a great team in attracting enquiries. We were overjoyed with the amount of entries we had into the competition (even if a few crafty devils pinched a few ducks while we weren’t looking!) we have let the winners know and there bubbles are in the post as we speak. Congratulations to our winners and thank you once more to all the entrants for making a fun event.rubber-duck-thin

… And so how many ducks? We had a wacky range of guesses ranging from 60 to 600! There were 166 ducks in total and none of the 100+ entries got the answer perfect. However, we are very pleased to announce Lindsay Howarth, from the Amey Innovations Team, as our winner (or nearest guess!) Our lovely rubber ducks have found new owners, many of which were re-homed with our wonderful team of sewing machinists as a bit of fun.

Proflight Bags hopes you enjoyed the show as much as we did and hopefully we might even be able to come back next year with a bigger and better stand and competition!

Showtime – Stand E72 Proflight #UWLIVE

E72-Proflight-Bags-#UWLIVEWe’re moving into day 2 of Utilities Week Live 2015… and its been a busy week already at stand E72 and were looking forward to more of the same! Monday saw us head down the motorway to put our great new stand in position, ahead of another busy but exciting day yesterday.

We have been overwhelmed by the steady flow of interest in our diverse range of bespoke bags (fingers crossed days 2 and 3 continue like that!). We’ve attended the show with a range of stowage, line bags and rucksacks. As our range is generally made to client specification it was challenging to determine the best examples of what we do to show you.

Director Paul Noble commented, having spent yesterday on the stand “As it’s our first time here at Utilities Week Live we were a little unsure what to expect, but so far we have been very impressed with the show, stand and visitors. Really enjoyable show so far and I’m hoping today is just as encouraging”

We also have a little show competition running, simply guess how many rubber ducks are in the perspex pipe on the stand, get it right and win a bottle of fizz! Sound easy? Well I’ll tell you it took a while to count them all!

Proflight are at the NEC event until Thursday 23rd April, we are hopeful to meet and discuss more potential bag solutions in the next couple of days. We would like to say thank you to the show organisers and good luck to all of you kind enough to spend a little time chatting to us and entering our competition.

rubber-duck-thin

Voltage Rescue!

By kind permission of our client we will be taking our specialist pack to Utilities Week Live Exhibition. It is designed specifically for high and low voltage rescues.

Originating from issues with transportation and theft of large metal rescue packs, Proflight and our client created this material based Rescue Kit. The kit holds all the key components for voltage rescues and can be easily moved and hung when not in use.

We designed and manufacture the bag which was planned to perfectly and neatly house all of the key components. These include various personal protective equipment, along with cutters and other tools. The key here for our client was the ability for the bag to hang up – working very much like opening a cupboard door, each component inside is supported when the bag is hung.

When hung in position the bag is opened efficiently with one simple zip around 3 sides, making 180 degree opening a breeze. Once inside inexperienced users are met with the kit for a high voltage emergency and another smaller bag for low voltage works with both elements clearly labelled.

This is a solution we are very proud of – and are hopeful it may even have saved lives through prevention and ensuring the appropriate equipment is always on site. Our client is also very pleased with the outcome, to him what had started as a “daft” idea of a solution quickly became a reality. By adapting industry norms and with our help generating something new.

Utilities Week Live Trade Show Appearance

Utilities Week Live 2015Proflight Bags are pleased to announce our attendance at Utilities Week Live later this year. It will be our first time at the show and we are hopeful to discover some new exciting opportunities. We will be exhibiting from stand E72 on the 21st-23rd of April – only a couple of month to go already!

Proflight bags will continue to be a passionate supplier of bags to the emergency services. However, we want to expand our desire for lifesaving bags, keen to make any high risk task or equipment management as safe and secure as possible. Hence we found ourselves exploring solutions within the utilities sector.

Workers in some of these industries don’t often get the respect they deserve in managing and ensuring we all have heat, light and water. We are hoping to be given the opportunity to show what Proflight can do and how we can limit risk and encourage easier, safer working through bespoke solutions.

Currently we have small involvements within the market with our high voltage rescue kit. The kit holds various items which help in high and low voltage rescue. The bag hangs on D-rings and is easily unzipped to reveal pockets for each assigned item.

We also manufacture a bespoke carry bag which was designed specifically for sensitive gas pipe work inspection camera equipment. The bag is strong and primarily protective. Thick foam surrounds the equipment and a stiffened base ensures a highly supportive bag.

Proflight is hopeful we will find more situations which require innovative and specialist work with the final objective of ensuring employees have the perfect equipment to help in potentially dangerous or hazardous work. If you have the opportunity to attend the NEC for the show, please do come and find out more… We’re sure to have a competition on too!

Utilities Week Live 2015

Retrieving AirAsia Flight QZ8501

Specialist bags used in the recovery of bodies following fateful plane crash over Christmas period. Bags are designed to easily float to the surface when in use. Although, a sombre incident this application of specialist bags sparked our interest.

The flight crashed last month killing the 162 people on board. The flight – flying between Indonesia and Singapore at the end of December, when it ran into bad weather and disappeared from radar systems. So far only the tail of the plane has been found. Diving teams will be taking on the search operation shortly.

The dive team is to be a combination of highly qualified volunteer civilian divers and military divers. The aim find the plane and recover as many of the bodies on board as possible. A volunteer diver commented “We have the ability to dive in tight and overhead environments and in harsh conditions so we want to contribute our skills for this rescue effort”

The planes fateful journey took it into the Java Sea. The sea is considered to be relatively shallow but divers face large waves, strong undercurrents and poor visibility on the muddy seafloor. A diver commented “We have to work with our hands. We use all our senses. If needs be, we will crawl on the bottom and find things.” “We are trained for that. That’s why we are here.”

Those are not the only challenges they will face. The plane is believed to be upside down and stuck deep in the mud. Many of the passengers may also still be strapped to their seats and getting them out will be tricky. Divers will have to collect their body parts before putting them in a bag underwater that is then floated to the surface.

These bags appear to have been designed to be lightweight in a mesh fabric. The bag opens widely in the style of an old-fashioned coin purse, to help divers when working in currents and low visibility. The bags resemble a large suit bag once in use, which the diver can safely guide to the surface.

Best of luck to the recovery teams and well wishes to the families who have been touched by this tragedy.

Celebrations & Congratulations

It has certainly been a hectic but exciting couple of weeks here at Proflight, after the Emergency Services Show. We have been able to send our congratulations to competition winners and enjoy new connections. We had a great time and really enjoyed discussing new ideas and future plans.
Proflight-Champagne
The lovely Emma, our competition winner from the Wednesday of the show very kindly let us know her her bottle of celebratory champagne had arrived safely. Along with of course her new Proflight mug!
“A big thank you to Proflight Bags for my competition prize at the Emergency Services Show, it was lovely champagne!”
We would like to add we had not intended on drinking the champagne out of the mug, but if you want to keep it all for yourself then maybe it would be a good idea.

Overall, we had a really great time at the show. We are certainly hopeful we can be there next year for more fun and competition. Well done and thank you to all of those who got involved and we hope your new Proflight mugs arrived safely over the weekend.