Damaged products during shipping lead to a few problems for any business. The profit margins start to shrink, customers start to question if they can trust your brand, and the costs add up fast. A single cracked screen or one dented component is all it takes to cause returns, refund requests and negative reviews (and…

When shipping an expensive CNC machine or a delicate turbine component across the country, bubble wrap and crossed fingers aren't going to cut it. The equipment arrives with cracked housings, misaligned parts or damaged sensitive bearings - because shippers assumed that the standard crating would work. Transit damage is responsible for nearly 20% of the product…

Custom corrugated boxes usually need a minimum order of somewhere between 500 and 1,000 pieces from most manufacturers. These minimums are there for a practical reason, though. A custom die-cutting setup runs about $800, whether you're making 50 boxes or 5,000 boxes. The machines need to be calibrated, and printing plates have to be created. There's…

The width of that missing strip of material is called the kerf. It's one of these small details that can change your final product quite a bit. Set it correctly, and your cut pieces will actually match your design dimensions. Ignore it and you'll get parts that are frustratingly off by a few millimeters. Cut a…

Foam selection for boat construction can frustrate even experienced builders. Walk into any marine supply store and you'll be surrounded by PVC, polyurethane and all sorts of composite options, each with its technical specifications that seem designed to confuse more than they help. Pick the wrong material and six months from now you could be…

Military packaging specifications have to meet very strict standards, and there's actually a good reason behind these regulations. Defense contractors lose millions of dollars annually because their shipments fail inspection. Most of these packages would work just fine for commercial shipments - no problems whatsoever. Military audits work at a very different level, though. The Defense…

Foam die cutting versus water jet technology - if you need to decide between them for your production runs, then you have lots of different variables to weigh. Cost calculations alone can get pretty complicated because you need to balance tooling investments against the per-piece pricing that you'll actually pay. Then there's the lead time…

Enforcement actions jumped 15% across the industry last year as the FDA cracked down on medical device packaging. Foam materials got hit the hardest because of the biocompatibility and chemical migration problems that come up. Medical device manufacturers are now working in a completely different regulatory world as the new ISO standards and sustainability laws…

The recent growth in waterfront homes and recreational boats has helped push flotation technology forward in some pretty interesting ways. These newer foam blocks can handle environmental damage much better than the old ones, and they're also much safer for the marine life in your area. The engineering improvements that have come along in the…

When you're working with large foam blocks, you need to use a completely different technique than what you'd use for your usual foam project. If you make just one mistake, it can cost you thousands of dollars in wasted material and put workers in danger. The answer comes from understanding how these materials work and picking…

Say a $2,000 laptop shows up at your customer's door with a cracked screen and loose hinges. Nobody wants to worry about whether their expensive products will arrive safely. Packages get damaged during normal handling. But so many businesses keep making the same mistakes with their foam packaging - mistakes that turn what should be…

Commercial foam orders are different from retail purchases because you need exact density specifications and custom cuts for what the structure needs. You'll see the difference faster when you look at your budget. When your team works together with fabricators early on, you can skip those expensive do-overs that happen when dimensions change at the…