Reusable design reduces costs
February 1st 2006

A major UK exporter of mobile antennae used plastic 'suitcase' style reusable packs with foam inserts to export product by airfreight. These packs had an irregular rounded shape making them difficult to unitise for bulk shipments. The resultant pallets proved to be unstable when stacked, costly to ship and difficult to recycle. This, combined with mounting environmental pressure from the end-user, resulted in a replacement pack being sort.

DS Smith Burwell, experts in corrugated design, chose an 'EB' combination material for the new pack which gives high structural rigidity with overall lightness. A reusable, self-locking design ensures ease of access for packing and unpacking and long shelf life.

Internal dunnage creates individual compartments for all the separate components, while reinforced buffer ends secure the heavier items. A simple plastic handle completes the pack enhancing portability.

The DS Smith corrugated solution is just half the size of the plastic pack resulting in savings in warehouse costs. Being rectangular in shape it is easy to palletise and stack, and with a 40% reduction in weight, airfreight charges have been significantly reduced.

Overall, with the improvements in packing, the manufacturer has estimated that the cost of packaging has been reduced by nearly 60%.

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