Selecting the Best Box and Tape to Get the Job Done!

When trying to decide what box and tape product is best for your application please consider the following.

How much weight is going into the box? Fiber Box Association guidelines are as follows; 1 pound up to 50 pounds ECT 32 is recommended. Over 50 pounds but less than 80 pounds ECT 44 is recommended. It If it is over 80 pounds doublewall is recommended. Please keep in mind these are guidelines and other factors MUST be considered. There are variables like combined inches of the boxes outside dimension - length width and depth added together, shipping method UPS/FED EX versus palletized product that is stretch filmed on a pallet. Both UPS and Fed Ex have their own recommendations. Please check their websites for additional information.

Does the product help or hurt? (Think stacked paper versus marshmallows). If your product is fragile it is always better to be safe than sorry, and error on the side of caution by going with a heavier material. PKGING recommends when shipping items deemed fragile that either ECT 44C or ECT 48 doublewall material is used.

Shipping method, (UPS/Fed Ex versus stacked on a pallet, stretch wrapped and shipped carrier) This is a very important consideration when deciding what materials to use when shipping your products. There is a world of difference when boxed products are neatly column stacked on a pallet and then stretch filmed versus shipped one at a time via UPS or Fed Ex. In general, palletized products less than 50 pounds are fine with ECT 32C. However, if you are shipping your product via UPS/Fed Ex we recommend always using heavier material such as ECT 44C. When in doubt, always call PKGING.COM for assistance.

Climate, does your product need to be kept cold during shipment? Climate is another very important element when selecting the proper packaging materials. A cold climate has higher humidity and will weaken a corrugated box dramatically. The time under these conditions must be considered when selecting the proper corrugated material, as well as the proper tape. “Stock Boxes” are not available with high humidity adhesive (this is the product that bonds the different plies of paper together). In place of a high humidity adhesive we recommended upgrading the substrate by one factor, so if you were going to use ECT 32C we would recommend using ECT 44C. When considering tape for a cold environment we recommend using a high quality acrylic based adhesive tape. The selection of the proper tape is equally as important as selecting the proper corrugated material.

To give you an idea how cold conditions and humidity can affect the performance of your boxes, consider the following. “Loss” means performance loss of corrugated material.

0 to 50% relative humidity = 0 percent loss

60% relative humidity = 10 percent loss

70% relative humidity = 20 percent loss

90% relative humidity = 52 percent loss

Will your product be stored for a period of time prior to shipment? If yes, for how long? Storage time under load is another very critical element in selecting the proper corrugated material. The guidelines listed below can be used as a general resource. These statistics are palletized filled boxes on a pallet.

10 to 29 days = loss of 37 percent.

30 to 89 days= loss of 42 percent.

90 to 179 days=loss of 50 percent.

Will there be some type of inner packing that would provide additional support/protection to the product and box? Anytime you can add something to the interior of your corrugated box to increase the strength and protect your product at the same time, it’s a great idea to do so. PKGING.com has many products that will accomplish this. One example would be wrapping your product in bubble. Please always remember that “head space” (defined as the area between where the product ends and the top score of the box begins) is the enemy and must be avoided at all costs. Head space is sure to contribute to the damage of your product in transit.

What is the value of the product that you’re shipping? Too often the price of the product being shipped is not taken into consideration by the shipper, and if it considered the shipper will purchase expensive insurance. We are not suggesting insurance is not necessary, what we are saying is DON’T SKIMP ON PACKAGING WHEN SHIPPING EXPENSIVE PRODUCTS OUT. You do not want your customer to have to file a claim that could have been avoided if the product was properly packaged in the first place.

Is the product going to someone who might ship it again, like a distributor? It is always a good idea to keep in mind what will be happening to your products once your customer receives them. An example of this would be you are shipping products out in full pallets secured by stretch wrap, but your customer is going to break it down and ship one box out at a time via UPS/Fed EX. Another example is your shipping out a 4 pack of product but your customer is going to break it down and ship out single packs. These are all important factors to keep in mind as you want to assist your customers to be as profitable as they can be.

What is better for shipping a box, water activated reinforced paper tape, or pressure sensitive tape that can be applied with a tape gun? Call us a little old fashioned here at PKGING.com but when conditions are normal we like water activated reinforced paper tape, of course this can be the most difficult to apply as it requires some type of equipment, but there is no question it gives you the best bond to the corrugated and provides the greatest amount of tamper resistance. The downside is you need a work station and you lose the convenience of portability. So if you require portability then tape guns with a good quality tape is the way to go. Remember rubber based adhesive tape for room temperature and acrylic based adhesive tape for damper cooler environments.

Should I use a “C” seal or and “H” seal when closing my box with tape for shipment? What do we mean by “C” seal and “H” seal for box closure? “C” seal is the standard strip of tape down the length of the boxes top and bottom flaps. This seal is generally considered adequate when shipping boxes that are palletized and stretch wrapped. An “H” seal secures both the length and the width of the boxes top and bottom flaps. An “H” seal helps to eliminate torch or twisting of the box in transit. We recommend an “H” seal top and bottom for all boxes being shipped via UPS/Fed EX.

If available what is better a brown box or a white box? If you are a company in the food or food-related business, we would recommend using white boxes. If you’re a company in the healthcare business we would recommend white boxes. Over the years white boxes have become the ‘norm” for these industries. There are exceptions to the “norm”, white boxes that are shipped out via UPS/Fed Ex do not arrive very white. During the shipping process they become quite stressed and a brown box is far more forgiving from scuffs etc… If you consider your company environmentally friendly then by all means you will want to use brown and if you want to take it a step further check out our list of “green boxes” made from 100% post consumer waste. White is not the natural color of a box, in order to achieve this affect the outside liner of a box must be bleached using chlorine at the paper mill.