How Synergy, the Environment and Globalization are Revolutionizing the Packaging Industry

Bill Armstrong, Technical Development Manager, Sealed Air Corporation

What do air conditioners and computer printers have in common? Both have protective packaging needs which demonstrate three trends dominating the industry today.

Anyone involved with industrial equipment will recognize the first trend -- synergy. For packaging that means moving operations "upstream" into the production area. Secondly, companies want to safeguard the environment through technical improvements in packaging materials and their disposal. The third trend arose from our global economy which requires suppliers to design and construct packages to common standards with common materials.

Synergy: Integrating Packaging and Production

With more manufacturing processes becoming automated and capable of higher speeds and efficiencies, packaging manufacturers are concentrating on delivering their cushioning, surface protection or void fill products to a packaging site on the production line instead of to a general shipping area.

Integrating production and packaging requires close cooperation between packaging designers and their customers-- product manufacturers and distributors. When packaging stations join the assembly line, packaging manufacturers fill a critical role as consultants to ensure the system is reliable, effective and cost efficient.

Protecting air conditioners during shipment is a hot topic for one manufacturer with "Just-in-Time" ideals. The company has the fastest order response time in the industry and is always working to improve it.

As many as 1,000 air conditioning units roll off the assembly line daily at one factory, and the manufacturing schedule changes frequently. There are eight different product designs in a variety of shapes and sizes. They weigh between 25 pounds and 110 pounds. The company needed a system which enabled it to package any of those products with little advance warning.

To meet that goal they had to replace their current packaging method that used 50 different components (including 32 carton sizes and a mountain of expanded polystyrene). The packaging process is now an integrated part of the assembly line.

The company changed to a high-speed Instapacker™ system coupled with an Instapak® vertical molding table to create custom-designed foam cushions in approximately one minute. As products come down the production line, cushions are positioned on the air conditioners in preparation for boxing and shipping.

Sealed Air Corp.'s high-speed Instapacker™ system dispenses a bag filled with expanding Instapak® foam that is then placed into a vertical mold enclosure on an Instamolder™ turntable. As the operator closes the lid to the vertical mold, the expanding foam conforms to the mold image. The table then rotates, bringing the next empty mold into position. The first mold enclosure rotates to a second operator who removes a highly protective, engineered cushion ready for use. The molds can be exchanged quickly to respond to the needs of the assembly line.

Space efficiency is a critical factor when packaging joins the production line. The chemical components of the liquid Instapack® foam are dispensed from two, 55-gallon containers, which create the equivalent of an entire tractor trailer full of pre-formed polystyrene. A patented dispenser mixes the liquids to activate the foam as it pours into the bag.

Protecting the Environment: Redesigning Products, Cutting Waste

To protect the environment, the packaging industry is moving to reformulate products and design them for efficient and safe disposal. Redesigning packages to reduce the amount of materials used is a top priority. During the past five years through its package design labs, Sealed Air Corp. alone has eliminated more than 10 million pounds of packaging materials that would otherwise have required disposal by the customer. In other efforts, take-back programs have been implemented for reclaiming not only packaging materials, but also the metal and plastic drums in which the Instapak® formulation is shipped.

One California-based computer printer company actually has a corporate mandate to use a minimal amount of packaging that includes as much recyclable content as possible while ensuring proper product protection. To meet high environmental standards, the company recently switched to Sealed Air Corp.'s Korrvu® retention packaging for many of its printer parts.

The retention pack uses a clear elastomeric film held by a corrugated frame. Products are entrapped by the flexible film and held securely within the retention frame.

A packaging engineer from one facility explains, "We have the power to influence what goes into our landfills. Korrvu® retention packaging is curbside recyclable and each pack can be used three to five times. I have the reward of knowing, that we will prevent 14 truck loads of waste from entering landfills next year. Plus, an additional 28 tractor trailers will be kept off the roads."

Globalization: Providing the Same Service Worldwide

The growth of the one-world economy means packaging companies must design and construct packages for multi-national companies to common standards with common materials no matter where the packages are produced. It shouldn't matter to the consumer if the product they receive was manufactured and packaged in Mexico, Ireland, Singapore or Cincinnati. Global consistency is the key, and one way to achieve that is to obtain ISO 9000 certification for packaging production plants, as Sealed Air Corp. has done for many of its plants with ongoing efforts to certify the rest of them.

Globalization also means customers now demand the same support and services wherever they choose to produce their products. Fulfilling that demand requires packaging suppliers to expand design and testing capabilities to cover the major industrial areas.

The California-based computer company literally fulfills orders for printers from almost every country in the world, including countries with strict packaging requirements like Germany and France. As a result, packaging must meet a wide variety of international regulations. Korrvu® retention packaging meets those standards.

Air conditioners and computer printers may seem like an unusual cross section of products, but they demonstrate the wide ranging impact of the packaging trends in action today. Synergy, environmentalism and globalization influence protective packaging decisions in companies with diverse product lines and companies with a global reach.