provided by: Modern Materials HandlingDistribution operations use packing peanuts, air cushions, crumpled paper and other types of protective packaging to:
- provide void fill, filling up the empty space in a package to keep the contents from shifting;
- provide cushioning, protecting delicate products from the rigors of shipping; and
- provide surface protection for products that may be scratched or chipped if they collide with each other.
Protective packaging needs vary from operation to operation. Distribution centers that have a small selection of box sizes for shipping a wide variety of products, for example, have a great need for void fill in their packages. DCs shipping fragile products via parcel carrier usually need to provide extra cushioning. Products shipped under more controlled conditions need far less protection. A retail DC shipping products to its own stores, in its own plastic totes, using its own fleet of trucks, for example, may not use any protective packaging.
Most companies aim to use the lightest and least expensive packing material that will adequately protect their products and satisfy their customers.
Ideally, a DC will use just one type of material for all its shipments, making the packing process quicker and easier for the packer and reducing the storage space needed for packing materials. DCs with a broad product range however, often need multiple materials.
Paper
Paper is one of the oldest and most common materials used for protective packaging.
The greatest benefits of paper, says packaging consultant Alfred McKinley (518-887-5656, www.transport-packaging.com), are that it's inexpensive and widely available. But paper compacts under too much weight, he says, allowing a package's contents to move around.
For this reason, paper is a good choice for lightweight products that won't crush the paper, he says, or for heavy products that are durable enough to withstand some jostling.
Some operations simply place rolls or sheets of tissue paper, newsprint or Kraft paper in their workstations where packers crumple the paper by hand and stuff it into packages.
Others use machines to crumple the paper, maximizing its volume. A common style of machine pulls paper from a roll, forms it into a tubular shape, and cuts it off at pre-set lengths for an operator to place around products.
Air cushions
Inflatable air cushions have gained a considerable share of the protective packaging market in recent years. A major reason for their popularity is that the ultra-lightweight cushions have little to no impact on the weight of a package and, therefore, on the cost of shipping that package.
And because workers inflate the cushions on-site, companies get a large amount of packaging without needing to store bulky materials, says Bill Armstrong, technical development manager for packaging supplier Sealed Air Corp. (800-648-9093, www.sealedair.com). The reverse is true for customers. They can easily deflate the cushions, reducing a large amount of packaging to a small amount of waste.
The cushions, however, are affected by temperature and altitude. On its Web site, parcel carrier UPS reminds customers that extreme cold and extreme drops in altitude cause air volume in the cushions to decrease, leaving extra space inside a package and increasing risk of product damage. Extreme increases in heat or altitude, on the other hand, cause the cushions to expand, creating stress on the shipping container.
A variety of machines are available for filling and sealing air cushions, and different DCs use them in different ways, says Armstrong. For example, he says, some DCs have small machines at each pack station for filling cushions on demand, while others have one machine that supplies multiple pack stations with batches of filled cushions.
Encapsulated-air plastic sheeting
Encapsulated-air plastic sheeting?commonly known as Bubble Wrap?is a particularly versatile form of packaging material, says Armstrong, as it provides excellent void fill, cushioning and surface protection. When the primary need is void fill, he says, operations choose wrap with extra large bubbles. When surface protection is needed (for interleaving between plates in a set of ceramic dishes, for example), operations choose small bubbles.
Encapsulated-air plastic sheeting is more expensive than paper, adds McKinley, but it is lighter and doesn't settle and compact the way paper and other materials often do.
This material is available on rolls and in pre-cut sheets for completely manual packing operations. Semi-automatic dispensers and cutters are also available. In addition, some manufacturers now offer machines that inflate and seal bubbles on-site.
Loose-fill packaging
Foam packing peanuts made of expanded polystyrene (EPS) are the most common form of loose-fill packaging material, and most of the EPS peanuts on the market today are made of recycled content, says S. Paul Singh, a professor at the School of Packaging at Michigan State University (517-353-4384, packaging.msu.edu).
Like air-filled packaging material, EPS peanuts are incredibly lightweight. They're also very inexpensive and good at cushioning. But packaging experts say EPS peanuts have lost market share because they tend to settle during shipment, and customers complain about the mess created when shipments are unpacked.
Peanuts can also be made of starches that disintegrate in water. Starch peanuts make up just a small portion of the market, says Singh. They're heavier than EPS peanuts and they can leave a residue on products, he says.
Loose-fill packaging is often dispensed from large bags suspended above packing stations. A scissor valve at the base of the bag allows an operator to dispense the amount of material needed for each package.
Foam sheeting
Thin foam sheeting can be crumpled and used as void fill, but this expensive material is primarily designed for surface protection. It's often used to wrap expensive furniture or artwork to protect against scratches and dings.
The sheeting is made of plastics such as polyethylene or polypropylene and comes in a variety of thicknesses, up to about .25 inches. It's primarily purchased in rolls but is also available in pre-cut sheets.
Foam-in-place packaging
Foam-in-place packaging is formed when two liquid chemicals mix and react to create polyurethane foam (a material commonly used for bedding and upholstery). Placing a product into the expanding foam creates a custom-formed protective mold.
This is a high-end product, says Singh, both in price and protective capabilities. It's used for heavy, fragile items, he says, such as expensive ceramics and glass.
Several types of foam-in-place systems are available. The simplest form of foam-in-place packaging is ready-to-use bags that contain pouches filled with the two chemicals. Operators press on the bags, breaking the pouches and allowing the chemicals to mix.
On the other end of the scale are systems that place 55-gallon drums of the two chemicals at a packing station, allowing the operator to pump the desired amount of chemicals into a package.
Semi-automated machines are also available that form a bag from a roll of plastic film, inject the mixture of chemicals inside, seal the bag and cut it from the roll. The operator then places the expanding bag into the shipping container.
Green packaging
Of all the protective packaging materials available, which is best for the environment?
According to S. Paul Singh, a packaging professor at Michigan State University, "There is no one environmentally friendly material."
Paper packaging, for example, is easily recyclable and is often made of recycled material. But it doesn't protect as well as other materials, says Singh, so you may have to use more of it. And paper is heavier than most other packing material, so you burn more fuel when you ship it.
"I try to emphasize this in my teaching: Don't be material-centric," says Singh. You have to evaluate your entire system, he says, testing different materials to see which provides the right amount of protection for your products while having the lowest overall impact on the environment. "It's a very complex problem," he says.
And unfortunately, environmentally conscious customers don't always understand this complexity. They often perceive paper, starch and other natural products as "greener" than plastic, when that's not necessarily the case.
Abandoning plastic packaging in favor of natural materials to satisfy the misconceptions of these customers, Singh says, would be "an absolute blunder."
Protective packaging system suppliers | Company | Web site | Paper | Air cushions | Bubble sheeting | Loose fill | Foam sheeting | Foam-in-place |
|---|
| Automated Packaging Systems | airpouch.com | | X | | | | |
| Easypack | easypack.net | X | X | | | | |
| FP International | fpintl.com | X | X | X | X | X | |
| FROMM Packaging Systems | airpadusa.com | | X | | | | |
| Inflatable Packaging | inflatablepackaging.com | | X | | | | |
| IntelliPack | intellipack.com | | | | | | X |
| Pak-Lite | pliusa.com | | | | X | X | X |
| Polyair | polyair.com | | X | X | | X | X |
| Pregis | pregis.com | X | X | X | | X | |
| Ranpak | ranpak.com | X | | | | | |
| Rapac | rapac.com | | | | X | | |
| Sealed Air | sealedair.com | X | X | X | | X | X |
| Storopack | storopackinc.com | X | X | | X | | |
author: By Corinne Kator, Associate Editor
Modern Materials Handling. Copyright © 2008 Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.