When you begin a packaging job, you know how much each piece “should” cost you and what your margins “should” be. At the end of the run, after all the labor has been employed, the materials have been used, and the time to correct problems has passed, you take a look to make sure you costed the job correctly. How many times are you surprised at the outcome? More often than not, what you end up spending is a lot more than you projected..

Printed shrink film is all the rage. It's taking over the corrugated industry by storm, and creating a more earth-friendly alternative to the classic corrugated or paperboard box and tray. Although this is not a brand new technology, it hasn't had the publicity it deserves. The versatility and durability of printed shrink film outperforms the stiff paperboard of years past. Not to mention, the film looks fabulous on the shelf. Here are some of the ways that taking a look into printed film may benefit your brand:

With respect to sustainability, plastics are often automatically given a snub compared to other packaging alternatives. But many presumptions about the environmental impacts of plastic are wrong. As it turns out, many plastics are in fact the best option we have when it comes to environmentally friendly packaging materials. Popular alternatives such as glass, metal, and cardboard are in fact significantly worse for our planet. How can that be? In the article below we explore some of the uncomfortable truths about plastics and the modern green-washing of alternative materials.

Unplanned downtime.. Trust me, you're going to have one or the other. At Industrial Packaging, we have a robust preventative maintenance program, with many of our customers participating. As the mechanic in the Fram oil filter ad used to say, "You can pay me now, or pay me later." Now is better..

It's More Expensive Than I Can Do It For In-House Every once in a while we hear this. The question is, is it really? How did you arrive at your internal cost?

There are two main components to look at when designing your skin packaging, board choices and printing guidelines. Board Choices In the early days, we pre-perforated the printed board used in our skin packaging with many small holes so that the air could be vacuumed through it. In the early days we used a clay-filled or newsback board. In the early days this left the package to be less than attractive.