Ask Steve
April 22, 2024
Question from Stan: Is there an alternative to corner boards and strapping for loads that require ventilation without sacrificing load containment?
Hi Stan, thank you for submitting your question.
For many years the packaging standard for products that require ventilation, such as produce, has been to use corner boards and strapping, and very honestly, it has been very effective. Let’s explore what this method does well and what it doesn’t do so well. This will help us understand what alternatives may be viable for you.
First, what they do well; they unitize the load. Remember, movement within the load when forces are applied during transportation is the catalyst for a load failure. Minimize movement and you reduce the chance of load failure. Straps placed around the outside of the corner boards and tightened will draw the corner boards together, gripping the load just as your hand grips a coffee cup.
What they don’t do so well is to prevent vertical movement when a side force is applied. I will explain what I mean by that. Picture columns of boxes stacked on a pallet. If vertical movement is allowed between the columns, each of the columns can rotate or tilt independently on the pallet. The further the columns are allowed to tilt; the more downward force is applied to the leading edge at the bottom of each column. Eventually the bottom box on one or more of the columns will fail and the load is lost. The straps concentrate the containment force (grip) only in the areas where they are placed. Tighten them enough to prevent vertical movement and boxes will crush. Another major disadvantage to corner boards and strapping is the difficulty in applying them. If you have a manual operation, the corner boards must be hand placed on all four corners and held in position with tape, hand wrap, or a large rubber band. Then, the straps must be placed around the load, and using a hand tool, tightened, and clipped or fused together. This is, to say the least, extremely slow and labor intensive. If you have automated equipment to place the corner boards and strap the load, your cycle time is reduced, but the equipment is expensive and requires a lot of maintenance. If you change sources of corner boards or strapping, the equipment settings may have to be adjusted to maintain performance and, with all that automation, your cycle times are still higher (meaning your line throughput is lower) than simply stretch wrapping the pallet. I haven’t even gotten to the cost of materials. Not only is this a very expensive packaging method, despite what some people claim, the materials are not practically recyclable and will end up in the waste stream.
Now that we have reflected on the pros and cons of corner boards and strapping, I can appreciate why you are looking for alternatives. To sum it up, corner boards and strapping provide effective ventilated load containment, but is labor intensive, expensive, and is not environmentally responsible.
To date, the alternatives have not been able to displace corner boards and strapping. A popular alternative is a netting film. This alternative would be a home run, but it is quite expensive and does not provide much containment force. You need to apply more film to reach a load containment standard, and as you do, the open voids in the netting are covered over with successive layers. Unfortunately, the film continues to stretch when forces are applied during transportation, allowing movement and eventual load failure. Reinforced vented machine stretch wrap has a pattern of holes in the film which are smaller than the ones in netting film, and therefore, this film provides less load ventilation. Additionally, the web easily breaks during the stretch wrap process, and like the netting film, it will require more wraps to achieve acceptable levels of load containment, further limiting ventilation.
There is some good news, however, with the application of physics, we can offer solutions that not only give you superior load containment and ventilation, but they will also take a fraction of the time to prepare a load for shipment, cost you less per pallet, and be environmentally responsible.
Our Rapid Roper, Roper Plus, and Rapid Vent were developed specifically for loads that require ventilation and need high levels of load containment. The Rapid Roper and Rapid Roper Plus have bands that we mechanically narrow to create filaments. The open area between the filaments provides ventilation. The filaments can achieve high levels of unitizing force when applied using virtually any stretch wrap machine. Once necked down and stretched, the filaments resist any further stretch, thus protecting the load from failure during transport. If you need full coverage, the Rapid Vent is a two-roll system where the full web is perforated between the bands of a second roll as the film is being applied to the load. Voids grow through both pre-stretch and as the film is applied to the load providing effective ventilation. The strength of the filaments delivers exceptional load containment, even better than corner boards and strapping. On average, we can replace 80 oz of corner boards and strapping with 3.5 oz of stretch film, which can be more easily recycled.
Every load is a little different and every company has its own objectives and priorities, which is why there is a no “one-size-fits-all” solution. We can use our combination of technologies to achieve results that are specifically tailored for your needs, because at the end of the day, that is all that really matters.
Thanks for asking!
