Bulk packaging ensures product safety: new options in rigid and flexible bulk containers help protect your products in handling and storage - Bulk Packaging

Food & Drug Packaging, Jan, 2003 by Christopher Barry

Finding the right bulk packages for your products requires technological comprehension. After all, it's a rough and tumble world out there and you've got to provide adequate protection for your goods.

Protecting large amounts of product--including fresh and frozen produce, sugar, spices, syrups and pharmaceuticals such as tablets, liquids and powders--is as challenging as it is confounding. Today, you need to safeguard your bulk products from damage that can occur through transportation/ storage abuse, moisture and leakage, sunlight and contaminates. Options for bulk packages can be somewhat conventional. But recent technological enhancements have created new choices for these bulk package types:

* Rigid corrugated containers

* Plastic drums

* Flexible bulk bags

* Intermediate bulk containers

Not just any old box

The versatile corrugated container can package almost anything from foods and pharmaceuticals to plastic resin pellets.

Compared to other forms of bulk packaging, such as drums or intermediate bulk containers (units that may imply heavy weight and higher shipping expenses both incoming and outbound) corrugated can be an inexpensive solution. If you lose a corrugated box, you'll only be out a few dollars--but misplace a rigid plastic or flexible container and the loss can be upwards of $250 or more.

What recent innovations are making corrugated even more desirable for bulk packaging?

Look at these two key design characteristics:(1) top to bottom compression and (2) flexural rigidity.

Sometimes compression isn't the major issue every case is different--and you may have boxes that hold lightweight product. If the product is "flowable"--meaning it puts pressure on the container sidewall whenever it shifts--the issue is more about rigidity.

Ironically, lighter weight bulk products are more challenging to package than heavier products because the product itself doesn't contribute to stacking strength. The container itself must withstand all the weight from stacking. The key is to vary the caliper (stiffness) of the container sidewall according to the product being packed. One corrugated manufacturer, SmurfitStone, has developed a flexural rigidity test that helps you detect what you'll gain or lose in bending stiffness if you change a component of the container's structure slightly.

Corrugated manufacturers are also working to increase container strength characteristics by grouping raw materials (liner medium) combined with fluting variations. Developing lighter weight paper combinations that have higher strength characteristics translates to less material usage, more strength and lower costs.

Knocked-down corrugated blanks may be easy to handle and may require less cubic space in trucks and warehouses, but with applications such as frozen produce, it's important that the package doesn't get wet. If you can take humidity out of the environment, corrugated works well.

For instance, if you were to put 2,000 pounds of frozen vegetables in a corrugated box in an uncontrolled environment and tried to stack them five or six high, excessive dampness would cause them to collapse. For this package to work best, a controlled environment is necessary and that includes during storage and transit.

Laminated bulk boxes can be engineered with a recyclable moisture vapor barrier that reduces moisture-related bulge.

Another type of corrugated bulk container--the EZ-Bulk from Paper Systems--has a single body construction eliminating multiple parts while simplifying assembly time. An unassembled EZ-Bulk is shipped knocked down flat. The container only needs 1/10th the space of a drum, so on inbound shipments you receive 10 times the potential shipping volume. Labor costs are reduced through easy assembly, reduced filling time and more efficient loading and unloading of product. Warehouse space is also saved because the units are stored knocked down flat and then the totes are stackable once filled.

International Paper, North American Container Corp., Paper Systems, Smurfit-Stone, Sonoco, Tharco, Uline Shipping Supplies and United Container are some leading manufacturers of corrugated bulk containers.

Innovative drum beats

Drums have been made from the same range of materials for years--mainly steel, fiber and plastic.

Most recent innovations have been with the newer plastic drums. These bulk packages are increasing performance levels and expanding versatility. The majority of newer open-head and tight-head plastic drums are blow molded in sizes ranging from 12 to 65 gallons. Injection-molded containers are available in smaller sizes, ranging from 15 to 25 gallon open head. The material most commonly used for plastic drums is high density polyethylene (HDPE).

Because tight-head plastic drums for the food industry can be used for liquid food flavorings--like syrups, soy sauces and other liquid additives--there are coextruded 55-gallon drums with seven layers available, which can increase protective barrier properties. And the interior smoothness of plastic makes shipping and storing powders, highly viscous products and dairy-based products an easier task.