Walk into any store and one encounters a plethora of products. An individual Walmart has more than 120,000 different product SKUs available. Each and every one of them required packaging consumables to safely make it to store shelves.
While there has been an increased focus on automation investments across the supply chain – with an estimated $244 billion forecast in 2022 – an often-overlooked area is the importance of consumables of all types. Selecting the right consumables to work in conjunction with these automated solutions can help organizations customize the entire packaging system for their specific needs.
Additionally, consumables can improve sustainability outcomes. Global brands continue to rely more heavily on their partners and vendors to meet key sustainability metrics under their Environmental, Social, and Governance platforms. The right consumable choices can reduce material usage, increase the use of recycled and recyclable materials, and extend the lifespan of consumables through productive reuse.
As a global leader in product and technology innovation for more than a century, Signode leverages deep industry roots, engineering and material science knowledge, and long-standing customer partnerships to offer a broad portfolio of consumables that can help organizations meet their unique transit packaging needs. Below is a representative sample of how we keep the supply chain moving – it counts on consumables.
Stretch Film
Be it blown and cast machine film, hand and hood film, or ventilated and perforated film, Signode’s wide offerings are engineered for distinct applications, equipment, and environments.
Machine Stretch Film
Signode offers a variety of distinct grades of Machine Stretch Film. Widely in use globally and suitable for a range of stretch wrapping equipment, many lines are designed to work in concert with the organization’s market-leading Octopus® rotary stretch wrapping technology. An example of how material and technology can be optimized for better outcomes.
Signode’s machine stretch film is developed with performance in mind across a vast array of industries, and their film specialists match the right film solution with the right machine to help maximize load stability during the transportation cycle. Determining a pallet’s load type, performing testing, and analyzing data are just some of the protocols the organization’s film specialists go through when selecting the right film for each particular application.
Hand Stretch Film
Frequently used in smaller-scale operations, the organization has incorporated many of the benefits of Machine Stretch Film in its widely-specified Hand Stretch Films. GaleWrap® Hood Stretch Film is one of this category’s leaders in enhancing speed and efficiency.
The key difference is that GaleWrap® is an oriented stretch film manufactured with a proprietary process that results in film contraction post-application. Itslightweight rolls simplify applications, most notably at the corners. GaleWrap® film is secured by simply pulling at the edges – providing fast, easy, and secure load containment.Hood Film
Designed to work with increasingly popular Hooding Technology, including Signode’s line of Lachenmeier™ equipment, the organization frequently customizes the caliper and capabilities of its hood films to maximize performance and efficiency.
Xeros® film offers 10-sided (5 outside surfaces + 5 inside surfaces) waterproof protection that enables manufacturers to store loads outdoors or ship on flatbed trucks without fear of product damage. As warehouse space continues to be limited in the midst of increasing demand, many organizations are looking to store more goods outdoors. Xeros® film recently passed stringent testing measures in a real-world environment with Owens-Corning. You can read the whole story here.
Strapping
Signode manufactures a wide variety of metal and plastic strapping consumables that are carefully calibrated to deliver against a variety of applications from hand equipment to inline bundlers. In fact, since our founding more than 100 years ago, Signode has been synonymous with strapping innovation.
Plastic Strap
Engineered for light to heavy loads across multiple industries, Signode continues to pave the way for new advancements. Most recently the organization launched Dylastic® Bio-based PP Strap in the EU. It’s manufactured with a minimum of 40% renewable bioplastic and vegetable raw materials, reducing CO2 emissions by ~50%. Held to the same high-performance standards as the many Signode plastic strap offerings, it’s compatible with all hand tools and equipment and is offered in multiple widths, thicknesses, and strengths.
Adhesive
LOCK-N’-POP® adhesive is the organization’s innovation with a myriad of benefits. This non-toxic, water-based cohesive secures packages together to eliminate shifting, helping to improve load stability throughout the transportation cycle.
Applied with compact, inexpensive and virtually maintenance free equipment, LOCK N’ POP® adhesive secures each box, holding packages together from the inside out, yet allowing packages to easily pop apart by simply lifting. The shear strength created by LOCK N’ POP® adhesive keeps packages from shifting side-to-side, virtually eliminating intermodal shipping damage.
Dunnage Bags
These “Pillows for the Pallets” help fill in transport gaps in trucking and rail transport. Signode manufactures a variety of airbags in different substrates and sizes.
Shippers™ Paper Airbags are made in the U.S. with 100% recyclable materials, providing shorter lead times. Reusable up to four times for light over-the-road shipments, they have been verified and tested by the Association of American Railroads.
They are easy to install, quickly inflate, and are a cost-effective and economical option to help prevent product damage. Like other Signode consumables, these are designed to work in concert with numerous inflation technologies such as the organization’s new MAX Inflator Mobile Air Xtreme. The battery-operated, portable device reduces the amount of time spent inflating airbags and creates more time for completion of other tasks and is up to twice as fast as leaf blower style inflators.
Edge Protection
Made from 100% recycled materials and fully recyclable, Angleboard® edge protection complements film or strap and serve a variety of transport packaging functions including pallet guarding, unitization, load stability and stacking strength to protect pallet loads from being crushed and corners suffering damage due to transportation impacts.
Interior Product Protection
From paper-based materials, to corrugated to foams, Signode has the in-house ability to design and test the right pack-out to provide “inside the box” protection, helping to keep products safe during the rigorous transportation journey. Constructed with lightweight materials that are highly shock-resistant, they help provide strength and durability throughout the distribution cycle.
Signode offers customization to meet customer-specific applications, from surface finishes to special designs. Energy efficient practices and procedures in the organization’s manufacturing processes are combined with using renewable resources that are biodegradable, non-toxic and 100% recyclable to deliver a sustainability-advantaged solution.
Plastic Slip Sheets
Reusable and recyclable plastic slip sheets offer a transport packaging solution that is durable and space-saving. This excellent alternative to wood pallets also minimizes contamination concerns. Unlike wooden pallets and fiber slip sheets, Plastic Slip Sheets resist moisture and bacteria while mitigating rodent and insect damage.
Die cut to product specifications, Plastic Slip Sheets are ideal for the food and beverage, retail, electronics, and home improvement categories. They can also be recycled through Signode’s Plastic Packaging Recapture Program, enabling companies to reduce waste disposal costs and minimize their environmental footprint.
Signode is proud of the role its growing product line of consumables plays in the global supply chain. The organization continues to develop new materials that are optimized to be used in concert with increased automation and meet the sustainability requirements of its customers – and its customers’ customers.
Consumables are only one offering among the vast constellation of robotics, technologies, equipment, software, testing, reliability services, and integrated capabilities available from the transit packaging pros at Signode. Learn more at Signode.com.
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