The
Tri-Wall design team at DS Smith’s heavy duty
corrugated plant, Monmouth, has excelled again.
In addition to solving a transit problem for a manufacturer
in the Defence and Aerospace Industry they have
also entered and won a 2004 StarPack Award, in the
prestigious Institute of Packaging Competition.
Due
to market demands a major supplier of carbon fibre
re-enforced ‘prepreg’ materials to the
global aerospace market increased the weight of
product shipped per unitised pallet. As a consequence
the existing packs started to bulge, becoming unsafe
on the pallet in both storage and transit. The individual
reels of product were held inside the outer container
with
injection moulded octagonal lifting chocks secured
in place with plastic bungs. The octagonal design
of the chocks only permitted a small surface area
in contact with the base of each container. This
resulted in a relatively high ‘point’
of loading in the centre of the containers, and
the handling of product, weighing up to 200kg, caused
pack bulging. The reduced pack security lead to
unsafe stacking and an increase in handling time,
particularly in the multi-stacking operations.
Tri-Wall designed
a replacement heavy duty triple fluted corrugated fitting that
folds around to form a stable rectangular shape, and is secured
with a jigsaw style lock. An additional panel utilises a ‘snap
rule’ facility for flat reverse folding against the fitting,
giving three wall stacking strength with vertical fluting. The
fitting fully fills out the container preventing any lateral
or vertical product movement, whilst ensuring that the weight
is evenly distributed across the base of the container, totally
eliminating the bulging problem. This has meant that the outer
container need not be strengthened, and can stack five high
in storage and two high in transit.
The fittings are die-cut in pairs
to simplify stock control and being flat they minimise storage
volume. Whilst the plastic bung has been retained to secure
the new fitting, the plastic element and consequent recycling
problems for the end user have been considerably reduced. In
general end users of the product do not finish a roll in one
production run, so the remainder is returned to a cool store,
still in the transit pack. The simplicity of new fitting design
again ensures safer handling for both unloading and re-loading.
And since the introduction of the pack, damage and end-user
wastage has been fully eliminated.
