Packaging choices

The purpose of product packaging is two-fold: protection and display. Materials used for product protection include Styrofoam, PVC clamshell, cardboard, bubble wrap, and plastic bag. As for display, one can consider full color-printed box or blank box, with or without see-through windows, depending on the needs of design and market.

Styrofoam is one of the best materials for product support and protection, so it is commonly used for fragile and heavy product such as resin. There are two basic forming methods of Styrofoam, i.e., hand-cut and machine molded. While hand-cut Styrofoam is cheaper, machine molded Styrofoam can achieve smooth surface and, because of its accuracy and thicker density, give better protection to product.

Clamshell, also called blister, is formed by vaccum mold with clear PVC or PE film. One advantage of clamshell packaging is its neatness. It is usually used for light products. When production volume is high, on the other hand, PVC clamshell can be integrated into the automatic production line.

For product that is durable, for example, plastic, simple packaging such as plastic bag may be sufficient. 

Display box is pretty much straight-forward; below are some sample reference.

It is worth to mention that, in addition to product packaging, there are usually shipping cartons used for protecting products and display boxes during transportation. Due to the confined space of shipping container, carton design can affect shipping cost in a significant way. To illustrate, supposed we have a product package measured 18*21*25 cm. Let's consider two packing options: 6 pieces and 12 pieces in a shipping carton, we would have two cartons measured about 56*44*28 cm for 6 pieces and 73*65*28 cm for 12 pieces respectively. Given the loading space of 1200*233.6*236.2 cm for a standard container, we figure that it can load 880 cases of the small cartons, or 384 cases of the large carton. In other words, we can load 5,280 pieces of products using the small cartons, while only 4,608 pieces using the large cartons, which would mean about 15% difference in shipping costs.

Following are standard measurements of container loading space:

• 20' Dry: 589.3*233.7*236.2 cm
• 40' Dry: 1204*233.7*236.2 cm
• 40' HC: 1204*233.7*269.2 cm
• 45' Dry: 1359*233.7*269.2 cm