I have been seeing a lot of search inquiries centered on the above mentioned title. It really doesn’t matter what kind of tray or what is getting packed in that tray that makes a difference. When people enter the term I expect they are looking for machinery that will either assist in placing something in a tray or automatically put the item in the tray. I also think they are probably looking for information regarding folding cartons or chipboard trays or perhaps preformed trays for things like prepared meals or vegetables.
Corrugated Tray Packing
In the world of corrugated packaging we generally talk about using the tray as part of a shipping container or what is called transport packaging. The tray is usually used to hold the product together in a specified configuration. An example is a beverage tray with 24 bottles or cans. The tray will signify one unit as in one case of water. The tray will also contribute to the integrity of the package by providing a shelf or barrier pad between layers on the shipping pallet and distributing the weight over a larger surface.
A corrugated tray consists of one piece of material and is designed to fold into a fully functional box. They are economical when the ratio of the width and depth are favorable or when the depth is ½ or less then the width and the resulting tray does not have top closing flaps. If top closing flaps are a requirement then several variations are available depending what is required for the product and shipping conditions. The simplest of these designs is the split minor flap tray shown below.
The Process of Tray Packing
Back to putting product in the tray, the simplest method is to place the product by hand. This method although labor intensive, is common with small companies with limited production. It is also common in the produce industry where packing and inspection occur at the same time therefore making hand packing justifiable.
The next most likely evolution in the process of automating packing is to accumulate the product in to a pack pattern and mechanically pick up the product and place it into the tray. This is accomplished by the use of fixed mechanical processes like with pick and place machines or Case/Tray Packer machines and more recently with Robotics which can perform many of the same operations humans can.
Then there is the reverse of the above where the product is accumulated in the desired pattern and transferred onto the tray and the product becomes the mandrel upon which the tray is formed. This method works very well for square or rectangular products that provide a flat surface to which pressure can be applied evenly to set the glue that holds the tray together. It also works well on cans and bottles that are rigid enough to resist the compressing pressure needed to set the glue.
Changes in the corrugated packaging box industry began significantly in 2008 as the economy turned sour for a number of industries. A number of companies dipped deep enough into the red that they were unable to meet their financial obligations. Compound the problem with the fact that the banking industry was freezing credit lines at the same time to protect their own solvency, many corrugated packaging companies saw chapter 11 bankruptcy as a sole solution to the current problems. By January 2009 a number had filed their paperwork in federal court.
Corrugated packaging companies that suffered the most tended to be those that produced boxes for durable goods. Consumers weren’t buying. This translated into less orders, less production, and ultimately less boxes being purchased to put the goods or their parts into. In comparison, the box companies that served non-durable goods manufacturing did not suffer as much. People still needed food, consumables and similar products. As a result, that side of the packaging industry continued, albeit a bit slower as consumers restricted spending to the necessities in life.
As surviving corrugated packaging companies were able to pull themselves out of bankruptcy by 2010, they became very good targets for acquisition or mergers with stronger competitors. Smurfit-Stone was a typical example of this consolidation as it became absorbed into Rock-Tenn. All the while, both due to bankruptcy reorganization and takeovers, box production and paper mills owned by these companies closed or were sold off across the country.
Coming through the wasteland of the economy, the top five box-making companies today control three-fourths of the market. A decade before 2008, their collective position was only half of the market. So from a market expansion perspective, consolidation has been exceptionally good for the industry as long as the company in question was one of the top five winners. The same can’t be said for those that went bankrupt or were acquired and phased out of existence.
Because the production systems such as factories and manufacturing facilities have also been cut down in number, those with remaining assets have far greater control of production in the industry and market. As a result, they now have a greater power on price setting because customers can’t find the same products via as many competitors.
Mergers also continue to be developed for further corrugated packaging consolidation. International Paper has purchased Inland Paperboard and Packaging. Giving the combined entity control of a third of the market. Many experts and critics agree that the corrugated packaging industry consolidation that has occurred so far has stabilized the industry significantly. This trend has been reflected in rising stock valuations of surviving companies as investors look for profit opportunities as well.
However, the market is also coming to a point where it’s price-setting will begin to push up the cost of goods sold for boxed product. Ultimately, consumers will be hit with the pass-through expense along with other unrelated pressures, such as the cost of fuel and transportation. When this hits a sensitive level, consumers could again shut off their wallets, causing further injury to the durable goods side of the box market.
What’s in a name? I don’t think it is any big secret that people who write blogs for business are doing it to promote their sales efforts. The instructions tell us to us to write about things that will help the prospective customer gain the knowledge they are seeking when they go to Google and type in something relative to the information they need. The big question is what these folks are typing into Google that will get them to my blog where I can help them?
In the packaging machinery manufacturing business that I’m in there is all kinds of industry specific jargon that to most people mean nothing, the words in fact by themselves have completely different meanings. A tray to most people is generally thought of as something used to serve food or carry items. In the packaging industry it refers to a shallow box made from one sheet of packaging material. It typically has four sides and a bottom and may or may not have a top. There are many styles of trays. End slotted trays, side slotted trays, design style trays. Open top, tuck top, split minor flap, side flange seal,RSC, full and partial overlap are just some of the descriptions used to identify the top panel which is usually used to close the tray and make it into a container.
A “container” another word probably most often thought of as something to put things in. We put liquids, powders, cookies, food, nails, sand, valuables, and trash just to mention a few things placed in containers. In the packaging world it might be a shipping container, display or storage container. It could be a bottle, can, box, crate, glass, jar, tube, or bag.
I think I can now move into the industry specific terminology that can make these key word searches more difficult. Let’s start with “automatic”. Couple this word with tray and former and you get “automatic tray former” this seems like a strange combination of words unless you use them all the time like I do and expect the people I am talking with to understand what I just said. Other word combinations like “case erector” and “wraparound case packer”, “automatic case packer”, “packaging line”, “bliss box”, “corrugated container” and “robotic palletizer” are all industry specific word combinations that all of us in the industry use routinely that sound like a foreign language to most people.
What I really want to know is how do you figure out which word or combination of words, do you use when searching for information on the web. Are you finding what you need?
When is the Right Time to select a Corrugated Tray Design
I sometimes wonder if choosing shipping containers is more of an after thought than part of the plan in making and selling a product. I suppose when the first ideas of marketing a product begin to form, most folks are not thinking about when that product might go into mass production. The immediate need is to make enough to actually sell and how one should do that. Perhaps they then consider does it need a container either for protection or containment. Next might be, does the container need to explain what the product actually is or does. Should or can the product be visible. Maybe at this point it will begin to become evident that there will be a need for more packaging so that the product can be safely transported to market.
This is where various types of corrugated shipping containers come into the picture. There are a lot to choose from but in the early stages of developing a new product when volume is small I suspect most people will buy what is readily available from the stock box suppliers. Something that comes close to fitting multiple pieces and promises protection and convenience for transport of the product by what ever means is practical.
Then let’s say the product sells like crazy, orders begin to pour in and now there is a whole new set of problems. How can you get more product made and packaged? Will you need to inventory the product and for how long? How far do you have to ship the product and how is it going to be transported?
Somewhere in this process the cost of all of this becomes a serious factor in your decision making process and eventually you will look at your packaging. If your product requires a primary package I expect you will look there first but eventually you will get to the shipping container. That is when you find out you could have potentially saved a lot of money and perhaps even sold a lot more product if the shipping container was part of the earliest planning stages.
What now, most folks will turn to the people they know probably their contact where they bought the original packaging. That’s a good start but don’t stop there if you don’t get the answers you are looking for. There is a whole host of industry experts out there that are more than willing to help. Almost all corrugated suppliers have professional designers on staff. All of us machine builders have decades of experience we can’t wait to share and with us you get the added benefit of discussing automating your packaging line.
