A is for air cushion packaging Bubble wrap and packing peanuts are extremely bulky, because they’re mostly made of air. This clever idea allows you to put the air in when you actually need it, saving on storage space and transport costs. The financial savings are equally impressive, too, so this is worth looking into if you use large amounts of protective packaging.
B is for bubble wrap This is one of the most popular packaging products and not just because it’s fun (over 1.5 million people have taken the trouble to ‘like’ it on Facebook). It may be that element of fun that makes it so popular with so many businesses, but they wouldn’t be using it if it wasn’t doing its job effectively.
C is for cardboard boxes Bubble wrap may be the most popular packaging in terms of people liking it, but when it comes to most popular in terms of use, cardboard boxes are streets ahead. And for no other reason than that they are so very good at their job. And they’re cheap to manufacture and environmentally very friendly. So that’s several reasons, then.
D is for document-enclosed wallets These are those clear plastic envelopes you find attached to the outside of parcels. Quick to apply, they make it fast and simple for the recipient to check.
E is for export packaging There’s a whole new set of things you need to think about when it comes to export. Your parcel may well experience greater extremes of weather, humidity, moisture and potential for damage and there are regulations governing what you can and can’t export to certain countries and regions.
F is for flutes The qualities of a box are affected by the size of the flutes. Basically, the larger the flute, the stronger the box. On the other hand, the finer (or smaller) the flutes, the better the box will be for printing on. Combinations of these types can produce double or triple wall boxes that benefit from the advantages of all the flutes used.
G is for gift boxes & gift packaging There’s no getting away from the fact that, while undoubtedly extremely practical and useful, very little packaging scores highly on the visual front. Most of it is brown or clear. This is where packaging can become fun.
H is for heat sealer Polythene bags and layflat tubing can be closed in a number of ways, such as plastic or wire ties and bag sealer tape. A more secure method is to use a heat sealer, which melts and bonds the plastic.
I is for instapack This is another very clever way of filling up some of that pesky space in cardboard boxes that your item can rattle around in getting damaged. It’s a kind of protective foam that automatically forms itself around the shape of the contents in your carton.
J is for Jiffy bags The Jiffy bag is a brand name of a product more generically known as a bubble envelope. They combine the best bits of other forms of packaging – protective bubbles and kraft paper – to form a lightweight yet highly reliable piece of postal packaging.
K is for kraft paper This is fantastically useful stuff and the basis for much good packaging, including corrugated cardboard boxes, Jiffy bags and the sort of brown paper packaging so beloved of Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music.
L is for layflat tubing This is a long cylindrical piece of (usually) clear polythene that allows you to make your own polythene bags. Just insert your product, cut the tubing to the required length and seal with a heat sealer – job done!
M is for mailing bags Years ago, prisoners would be made to sew cloth mailing bags for reuse by the Post Office. Today’s mailing bags are made of polythene and unlikely to be made any more effective by the application of a needle; they are, however, very light, very flexible and very strong.
N is for no-nail plywood boxes Here are all the requirements of good export packaging in one box. Plywood is treated wood, so exempt from phytosanitary regulations. It’s also strong enough to withstand a pressure of several tonnes and is unaffected by extremes of temperature and moisture.
O is for office storage boxes The paperless office seems some way off for most of us, so we still need strong storage boxes to keep all those invoices, statements and VAT receipts safe should the taxman come calling.
P is for polythene bags As unsexy as packaging gets, but for low-cost, hygienic protection from dust and moisture, while keeping the contents visible at the same time (making them ideal for retail), they really cannot be beaten.
Q is for Quicksnap postal boxes This is a very clever way of protecting high value items in the post. The contents are held securely in the centre of a box, away from damaging bumps and knocks, by sheets of tough polythene before being enveloped by multiple layers of cardboard.
R is for Removal Boxes & Packaging The main purpose of our packaging is to ensure contents are well protected, whether in storage or being transported. That can have domestic applications as well as commercial and we’ve developed a special range of removal packaging ideas.
S is for small parcel postal boxes In April 2013, the Royal Mail changed the way it charges for delivering parcels, splitting the previous ‘packet’ category into small and medium parcels. Davpack was the first packaging company to make available postal boxes specially designed to match these new regulations.
T is for telescopic boxes These are two-part boxes, with a separate base and lid. They provide flexibility because as the lid slides over the base, you can adjust the final height to suit the contents being packaged.
U is for unbuffered white tissue paper sheets Also known as archival tissue, this is the sort of high-level protection museums give to old documents and manuscripts. It is 100% acid free to ensure untarnished protection.
V is for void fill This is the ancient and noble art of filling space in boxes to stop contents rattling around when in transit. Apparently, in the absence of anything better, American military personnel in the 1950s used to use popcorn, among many other inappropriate solutions.
W is for white news offcuts These have two very handy applications: firstly, they are used for wrapping chips in at your local takeaway; secondly, and of more interest from a packaging point of view (although less easy to concentrate on now the matter of chips has been raised), they make for excellent wrapping paper (of the protective kind rather than the gifting one) and act as cost-effective void fill.
X is for… hmm, we’ll have to come back to you on this one.
Y is for yellow mailing bags It may be cheating, but this is all we could come up with beginning with Y. They’re like normal mailing bags, but yellow.
Z is for zip lock bags The clue to these is in the name: they’re bags with a zip lock. And if you’ve been on an airplane recently, chances are you’ve used one to take liquids on board.
With thanks to Davpack. Find out more information about the company’s products and services at davpack.co.uk
