How Pick the Right Packaging Film For Your Product

Businesses rely on skin poly film to package their products for retail and shipping, but is it he right fit for every product? For many businesses that have relied on skin poly film, ionomer packaging maybe a better fit for their packaging needs.

Ionomer packaging is a replacement film for traditional clamshell packages without compromising strength, integrity for the package in question, or its visibility to the consumer. This differs from the low density of skin poly film, where transparency or strength must be prioritized in each of its grades.

Skin poly film is a favorite of food and electronic companies. Whether it's fish or computer components, skin poly film allows the customer to examine the product before committing to a purchase. Heat allows for a vacuum seal to encase items before they reach stores.

 

Ionomer film is applicable in the all the same ways with the benefit of more strength than skin poly film.

For businesses who know for sure what material is best for their needs and budget, there are a few places where to get them. Packaging distributors and vendors are common placed to find ionomer and skin poly film, with distributors being a bit more popular for the variety of materials at their disposal. Vendors are more limited in what they can offer, and from which brands.

Smaller businesses may also want to consider online retailers like Amazon. This may expedite shipping times and simply the shopping process, but that relies on companies knowing exactly what they need without much assistance from the retailer.

 

Manufacturers are the best option for companies that know what they want and from which company. This an option usually reserved for businesses that have shopped around and settled on a material and brand they like best for packaging their products.

While they may not be willing to sell to purchasing inquiry, contacting manufacturers directly means businesses will go directly to the source of their film of choice, get what they need, and not have to deal with a middleman. This might cut down on overhead costs and even processing time before getting products to retailers. 

Keep in mind that unlike distributors and vendors, direct orders through manufacturers often require larger orders in order to be processed. For this reason businesses need to be certain that they're purchasing the right kind of film for their packaging. 

To know if skin poly film or ionomer film fits a company's needs for packaging their goods, there are some things they need to consider.

 

If a product needs maximum transparency but can forgo a certain level of strength in their packaging, a lower grade skin poly film will suffice. Packaging that needs to be strong but viewing the product inside isn't a priority, a stronger grade of skin poly film will get the job done. But products that require strength in its encasing while remaining transparent to observers in stores, ionomer film will best meet their packaging needs.

By knowing what you're selling and what information customers need in order to make informed choices at the point of purchase, businesses can better present those items with the film packaging that meets this criteriea. For those that still need some help figuring how to package their goods, suppliers of various films can help inform a business' purchasing decisions.

 

Be Safe packing and Unpacking holiday merchandise

With the coming holiday, stores across the nation are ramping up ordering.  It happens every year and with Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday around the corner millions of companies are simply filling their stock and shelves with products to sell.  Even in a pandemic and an uncertain presidential election, these companies know that people are going to want to purchase more items and go on a shopping spree for Christmas which is just around the corner.  This means that their employees will be working long hours and will be opening and shelving millions of dollars of products constantly.  This is actually where many work accidents happen and my goal is to cut back on those because even just one can destroy a day or more of productivity and harm the entire mood of your store.  It doesn't matter rather you have a sales floor or are entirely online it will take time and money, and simply life from your company.

 

So I want to first say that people are indeed human.  There are many companies that work with people like robots and use people until there is nothing left.  They put them on long hour shifts and don't realize that sometimes there are not even 5 hours between them.  People are not getting enough sleep and are working literally on empty.  This means that they are probably not very happy and also are sleep deprived and dangerous.  You need to schedule people wisely and not burn them out.  A happy work crew will be much more efficient and all the hours in a day won't make someone work faster if they can bearly walk and think.  So be careful with your scheduling and be kind to those around you.

 

Another thing to think about is making sure they have all the tools they need.  Not only do they need the right tools but also the tools need to be up to date and in tip-top shape.  Take for instance a store that receives 5 to 10 cardboard boxes a week normally of shipments.  Those cardboard boxes are usually cut open with a utility knife.  But if you now have 60 to 100 a day coming in for a few weeks people will be cutting tons of packages open and if the utility knives are dull then they may end up hurting themselves.  A dull knife means they will use more pressure to cut with and if they do there is a much greater chance for injury. Especially if they are cutting towards themselves.  Now I am not saying take away all knives, Not at all.  They are useful and needed, but give good instructions each morning on safety and be funny about it.  THen make sure they all have replacement blades to go with their utility knives and encourage them to change them.  In fact, show them how to do it.  Most people actually don't know. So have a morning meeting and take 4 minutes to show them. Heck, text them all a youtube link on it as well.

 

But just know that will all the extra work to be done people get stressed and make mistakes.  So encourage them to slow down and think about the tasks they are doing.  Also, be kind and don't overwork them.  Let them work at a nice fast efficient pace, but not too much.

Use Candy the Right Way

This year I have spent more time at home than any other.  The fact is that the COVID-19 Pandemic has forced me to stay home and in many ways, it has been very hard.  But I will say that I learned a whole lot of things by staying at home and reading more.  I have also read lots more cookbooks that have led me to expand my baking.  This has not always been a good thing and my wife and definitely vouch for my failure to make some good baking many times.  But I did learn how to do some very interesting recipes that ended up being pretty healthy.

 

One day I was finding that I simply needed a snack and that the lack of groceries in our home was making it hard.  The shopping during COVID-19 has been complicated and we try to only make a single trip to the grocery stores once a month.  That means that sometimes we run out of normal baking goods and to stay safe we simply live without them.  So being in a snack-filled feeling I knew that I needed to make something for myself and my family.

I was looking around and I didn't see a whole lot of normal baking items.  We had no flour and no sugar in the house.  That is pretty much the basic ingredients for all sweet baking of any kind.  So I decided to branch out and work on some different ideas.

 

Google was my first idea I searched for cookies with no sugar or flower.  It led me to many recipes that took me forever to decipher.  It was looking at code because the ads and the articles were like 15 pages long for a single recipe.  It made me pretty angry and I switched up.  I decided to look in youtube for an easy cookie that I could use candy boxes of what we had and oatmeal and bananas.  I know it was pretty limited, but I found a few videos.  I found the shortest one because I was getting hungry or maybe even, "Hangry" But I saw one that was only 5 minutes long and I put it on.

 

The recipe called for oatmeal, vanilla extract your favorite candy boxes of treats, and bananas.  It also asked for an egg and some butter.  I knew this was the one worth trying.  I decided to grab a bowl and start with the ingredients. I took two bananas and pealed them.  Then I added the egg, sweet treats, and oatmeal.  I slowly put the butter and a dash of vanilla in and mixed it up.  One other thing it asked for was a pinch of salt.  Then I turned on the oven.

 

It only wanted the oven to be on for 350 and about 10 minutes depending on the sweet treat burning in the heat.  So I watched it carefully and pulled it out.  The cookie reminded me of an oatmeal raisin from the look.  It was a big more soft so I knew it needed to sit and cool for a bit longer.  It turns out that this was a really good cookie in the end.  It was a bit more healthy than other cookies as well. But it was made with lots of oatmeal and thus lots of fiber. So, know your own body and eat with care.

Recycle Your Boxes

This year has change not only the United States but also the world.  The effects of the current situation have been felt in so many different areas and have come with so many consequences.  The economic shutdown and the regulations and stay at home orders that would follow changed the economy.  The United States saw an uptick in online sales and what that did was increase shipping to homes all across the United States.  People were no longer able to shop at many brick and mortar stores and that ended up in them purchasing from eCommerce stores consistently.  This was wonderful because we were all able to get goods and services delivered, but it also had a cost.  It meant that millions of more cardboard boxes would be shipped each day. The issue is that many people are not recycling those boxes and that the buildup and cost of this are great.  It is unfortunate and I have to admit it has been a struggle and hassle on my end as well.

 

My family was one of those ordering more online.  We were forced to stay home due to local laws and this meant that we had to order online in order to stay healthy and happy. What we began to notice was that the boxes ended up going to the garage and it started to pile up fast.  Within a week I was unable to put them all in our single recycle trash can.  The major issue is that I have to pay to recycle in my city and very few people end up doing it.  The majority of boxes get put in the regular trash and end up in a landfill.  Considering that we are all ordering 100 to 1000% more online means that the landfills are going to be getting very full very fast and all of those paper products are going to waste.

 

Personally, this is a sad thing because it means that more trees will be cut down in order to fill the cardboard boxes quota and that we will be putting more of it into the ground due to the lack of recycling.  The quantities are in the millions and billions of tons of waste each year and it is really sad to see. But it is not all sad and in many ways, I have seen many people actually work on making a difference.  Word is spreading and many are seeing the waste and are not happy about it.  They are deciding to recycle as well and they are also stuck in the same situation as me and limited to one can per week.

 

The best option to avoid the pile-up of boxes is to break them all down and make them fit perfectly into your trashcan.  I started to use my hands but after so many, I got tired of big cuts and decided to grab scissors to break them down.  I started to cut them up but then after a few boxes, my hands started to get hot spots because scissors are not meant to do this long term. It caused me a lot of pain and then I decided to go and get a nice fixed blade knife.  I put shoes and pants on and was very careful.  But I found I could carve boxes like a turkey and was able to get the right size for my green to recycle trash can. I hope you can do the same!

Top five Challenges in using stretch film

Stretch Film top 5 problems

Stretch film is the ideal product to hold objects together and protect them during transport and storage.

When using stretch film to contain the products in an orderly manner, various issues can arise from human error, improper settings on your machinery, and various other sources of trouble.

 

1. Stretch Film Tearing

• A tear in stretch film tear compromises the stability, safety, and load containment of the wrapped pallet.
• Tearing is associated with various factors based on the method used; it can be through the manual labor in together with a dispenser of the stretch wrap or by using the stretch wrapping machine.
• Tearing can occur because of many reasons. Tearing should be avoided by using the programmed stretch wrap machine with exact settings per load containment.
• The use of an automated stretch wrap machine lacks feasibility, which calls upon a packaging expert analysis if the correct setting gets not defined for the wrapping process.
• After analyzing the dispensers, machinery, labor force, and operators in a day to day wrapping process, the representative gets expected to advise on ideal material and equipment optimization your materials and equipment to reduce wear and tear.
  

2. Wrong load containment of stretch film

• The use of inappropriate load containment leads to multiple problems. The number of wraps, wrapping force, and gauge of the stretch wrap used dramatically determines the safety of the pallet—the main components of load containment, which ensures the safety of the load containment. A correct optimization from the local expert should help to ensure the security, productivity, efficiency, and standard implementation procedures load containment.

 

3. Use of inappropriate Type Of Stretch Film

• When the wrong stretch film gets used in wrapping the pallets, there is a high probability of waste of materials, time, money, breakdown, downtimes, and other associated process issues. It is advisable first to understand the various types of stretch films: the correct application and proper machinery using the ideal ones.
•  There are several kinds of stretch film from various types, and each with different applications in its ideal use. These include; Machine Stretch, Hand Stretch, Color Stretch, UVI Stretch, VCI Stretch, No Cling Stretch, Vented Stretch, Reinforced Stretch, Double-Sided Cling Stretch.

 

4. Use of improper Size Of the Stretch Film

• There are several stretch wrap in different sizes with varying applications and products.
• When the wrong size of stretch wrap gets used on the products, it results in wasting wrap and other resources, which include time and money. There is also a higher risk of improper load containment, which leads to damage to the load. The shape and size of the product, width, and height of the pallets are the determinant of stretch wrap to be used.
• It would help if you reached the local packaging expert to analyze machinery and wrapping material, especially if in doubt of the stretch wrap to use. There is a benefit in saving time and money when the right stretch cover gets applied.
  

5. Using The inappropriate Stretch Film thickness 

• Use of an inappropriate stretch wrap gauge results in various problems.
• If the stretch film used is too thin for the associated products, it may have an inconsistent tearing resulting time, material, and money wastage. Use of thick stretch film for products that require a thin gauge of film, equipment, money, and time could get wasted.

What makes corrugated boxes so strong?

With so many people ordering products from online businesses, I began thinking about the structural integrity of this material. This is an exciting topic to discuss, in my opinion. In reality, these boxes are made from stacked paper, but there is a little more going on than that. There is a science that goes on behind the scenes that give it the strength and uncompromising integrity. There are a few factors that play into the structural integrity of the corrugated boxes. Before we get into the structural integrity, we need to understand where and how these boxes came to be.

Corrugated boxes have been around since 1817. The first ship

ping box was made in London, and it was made from a material known as paperboard. It was not until the 1890s someone tired of the weak paper boxes decided to invent the stacking of ridged or wavy paper. This brought about what we know today as corrugated cardboard boxes. Once this technique was developed, the old paperboard boxes were replaced by the corrugated boxes for shipping. A decade these boxes are still being used today and are close to replacing wood shipped boxes as these boxes are lighter and easier to produce.  

The term corrugated means to bend into folds or alternative ridges. If you look closely next time you have this material, you will see small waves in between the stacked paper. These waves or ridges are what give the substance its strength and rigidness. It is interesting how one of the more soft materials on this planet makes up something as strong as these boxes. Yes, the material is still considered weak but not as fragile as paper. Paper boxes would also begin to fall apart after a few drops of rain, thus leaving the purchased product vulnerable to the elements. 

There is a test you can do at home to see how this technique works. All you will need is some pieces of paper and a workspace. Take two pieces of paper and fold them like a traditional Japanese paper fan, just a bunch of long rectangles, really. Once this is done, place a piece of paper on top of the now wavy paper. With the piece of paper on top, you can begin stacking random objects on the paper till it collapses. This is precisely how corrugated boxes work, just on a bigger scale. Of course, the paper will not be as strong as the mass produces boxes, but this will give you a good visualization of how they work. 

It is interesting to me how a material that is considered relatively weak can make up something as structurally sound as cardboard boxes. We really need to thank the people who were fed up with flimsy paper boxes and invented the technique that makes corrugated boxes. In today’s world, I do not think that paper boxes would have cut it. The material was thin and could break relatively easily. Not to mention a couple of drops of rain, and the paper boxes would start breaking apart. It is fascinating how corrugated boxes today are more or less water-resistant. They still hold their shape but will lose some structural integrity. The strengths of corrugated boxes solely come from a few sheets of paper folded into ridges or waves. What a mind-blowing fact that something so simple makes something so substantial.