To be sure, outsourcing is not always the best option. The US manufacturing industry's obsession with outsourcing over the last several decades has led to some major economic problems here at home, although it was very profitable to the companies shipping their manufacturing overseas at the time. Nevertheless, manufacturers and service providers specialize for a reason, and companies can often benefit by relying someone else's expertise to perform certain processes. Your company may be the absolute best when it comes to manufacturing urethane casters, but affordably fitting those casters on a shelf in a space-efficient, attractive, easy-to-open package is probably not your strongest suit - unless you're a contract packaging provider. While contract packaging certainly isn't for everyone (environmental test chamber manufacturers, we're looking at you), it can provide huge benefits for manufacturers tied to consumer industries. Here are a few benefits other manufacturers have found: [Continue Reading Article]

Environmentalists have raised concerns over the short lifespan of wooden pallets, noting that wood is perhaps TOO convenient for manufacturers and distributors to use, as many wooden pallets only make 5 trips before being reprocessed, recycled or, most commonly, tossed in a landfill. Manufacturers and distributors can afford wooden pallets’ short lifespan because the material is so inexpensive. Enter plastic pallets. Costing several times as much per unit as wooden pallets, plastic pallets offer several advantages over their organic counterparts, including longer lifespan, sanitation and recyclability. Let’s take a comparative look at wooden and plastic pallets’ performance. [Continue Reading Article]

Vacuum forming is a simpler process than injection molding, involving less equipment for the production of parts and requiring less tooling. Vacuum forming companies offer services that are economical yet still give customers the desired design flexibility for a wide range of plastic products because of low-cost tooling modifications. If you are looking for a cost-effective process for creating three-dimensional plastic products with sharp, precise details plus the option for trim and other visually appealing decoration, vacuum forming might just be the ticket. Known as a thermoforming process because it utilizes heat to make the plastic sheet or film pliable enough to form over and around a mold, vacuum forming serves industries such as food, cosmetics, medical, electronics, consumer products, toys, athletic equipment, appliance, automotive, office supplies, etc. The packaging industry deserves a separate mention because it relies heavily on vacuum formed items such as blister packs, inserts, trays and clamshells, all of which act to hold products in place as part of overall packaging protection, plus offer aesthetic appeal. [Continue Reading Article]

This paper attempts to identify some of the specifics of the process used to obtain approval for use of plastic pallets as equivalent to wood pallets for use in warehouse storage. This paper is written to look at the issue in general and is not intended to cover all storage situations. Your specific situation should be evaluated by a fire protection specialist. Most plastic pallets are molded out of polyolefin materials such as high density polyethylene or polypropylene. These materials are more flammable than the wood used to make pallets. Over the years the industry has argued with the fire protection establishment that plastic pallets, while they burn hotter than wood, are much more difficult to ignite. Fire protection people counter with the fact that most warehouse fires are arson and if an arsonist wants to start a fire they will do what ever they need to do to get a fire started. [Continue Reading Article]

Why Palletize Using an Automatic Palletizer? There are several reasons for choosing to palletize your packaging line automatically. First, palletizers stack a better quality load. Product damage during shipment or within AS/RS Systems (Automatic Storage & Retrieval System) caused by irregular loads is now part of the payback analysis to justify a palletizer. Second, it becomes more challenging to keep people in a low wage, low prestige positions such as manual palletizing... [Continue Reading Article]

Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say, and it appears that more and more manufacturers are viewing sustainable packaging as a necessity (as they should). This has lead to a recent slew of compostable, biodegradable and low-emission innovations across the manufacturing spectrum, and that trend is being picked up by leaders in the packaging industry... [Continue Reading Article]

A lot of people have a tendency to think of their packaging products as commodities. Sure, things like packaging peanuts, bubble, Polyethylene wrapping foam and corrugated cartons might sound like commodity products, but have you really looked at the purpose and value of your packaging requirements? [Continue Reading Article]

Plastic bags, also called “poly bags,” are one of those modern conveniences we take for granted. But 60 years ago, no one ever considered the question, “Paper or plastic?” Back then, people also managed to get by without Ziploc® bags or dry cleaner bags. This was because the technology for creating polyethylene film didn’t emerge until the 1940s during World War II. And the methods to create plastic bags from polyethylene film weren’t developed until the 1950s. The most common way to produce poly bags is by blown film extrusion, also called the “tubular film process.” In a moment, you’ll see how it got this name. Plastic bags are made from polyethylene. During processing, the polyethylene might be treated with any number of additives, such as... [Continue Reading Article]