For packaging engineers, puncture resistant packaging starts with analog design. You don’t need a vendor who just looks at your digital files. You need a design and manufacturing partner who loads and unloads sample parts into rack bags. Part drawings contain important information, but going hands-on and off-line will reveal problems like point loading.

Hold-True, a Made in the USA manufacturer of sewn fabric dunnage, specializes in analog design. For puncture resistant packaging, we know that choosing the right base material is important. As this article explains, however, you’ll also need to follow four key design guidelines for protective panels, structural members, bonding, and fabrics.

Protective Panels

Protective panels that are made of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) provide protection against point loading and abrasion. Hold-True sews HDPE panels onto parts bags and can recommend the right sheet thickness to use for your application. With steel sun visors and other parts that have sharp metal corners, it’s important to avoid using HDPE sheets that are too light. Otherwise, the plastic can crinkle or bend. If additional support is required, structural members offer a solution.

Structural Members

CON-Pearl® is a structural plastic that’s both strong and lightweight. Unlike Pcorr, a type of corrugated plastic sheeting that’s used with sewn fabric dunnage, CON-Pearl® provides strength in every direction. Depending on the application, Hold-True may recommend using sheets of CON-Pearl® in thicknesses of 3/8” or 1/16”. Thicker sheets aren’t necessarily better, however. If a plastic sheet is too thick, parts like a cabinet with attachment points may dig through.

Bonding

As some packaging engineers have learned the hard way, it’s difficult to bond HDPE to CON-Pearl® with regular glues. Most bonding agents that adhere to one substrate won’t stick to the other. Even plastic glues don’t work well because the two substrate materials are so dissimilar on a molecular level. That’s why Hold-True uses a specialized glue to achieve strong, reliable bonds. This bonding agent costs more than regular glues, but provides a strong return on investment (ROI).

Fabric

Finally, Hold-True can incorporate thin pieces of fabric into your fabric dunnage design to support parts loading and unloading. Design houses that only look at digital files can tell you how much a part weighs, but they lack the application knowledge to support ease-of-use for assembly line workers.

Puncture Resistant Packaging from Hold-True

Would you like to learn more about puncture resistant packaging? Do you have questions about reusable packaging materials or costs? To learn more about how Hold-True uses analog design to create sewn fabric solutions that are puncture-resistant, contact us.

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Rack Bag Design for Sewn, Reusable Fabric Dunnage

Rack bag design isn’t just about pocket size or material selection. It’s not just about computer aided design (CAD) software either.

Fabric Dunnage: How Dirty Rack Bags Muddy Your Costs

Fabric dunnage that’s cheaper may seem like a bargain, but there’s more to consider than just the purchase price. Dirty rack bags can muddy your true costs.

Work-in-Process Bags: Why the Pockets Sag on WIP Bags

Work-in-process bags are used for kitting and sequencing parts for assembly-line production. Learn how to design better pockets for WIP bags.

Three Ways to Cut Your Sewn Fabric Dunnage Costs

Sewn fabric dunnage costs are about more than just the purchase price of rack bags. Learn how to reduce your packaging costs and ensure rack bag ROI.

Fabric Dunnage Suppliers: Cost Isn’t the Only Consideration

Cost isn’t the only consideration with fabric dunnage suppliers. Hold-True explains what sourcing managers need to look for in reusable packaging partner.

Made in USA Fabric Dunnage

Made in USA fabric dunnage from Hold-True is about American know-how and a commitment to meeting your needs.

Sewn Fabric Dunnage: Four Reasons Why Rack Bag Seams Fail

Sewn fabric dunnage that fails can cost you time and money. Rack bag seams tear for many reasons, but there are four that relate to threads and stitching.

Fabric Dunnage Costs and Thread Selection

Fabric dunnage costs and thread selection are related. Lower-cost threads may seem like a bargain, but using a thread that’s too thin (and too weak) can cause rack bag seams to fail.

How to Design Fabric-Resistant Fabric Dunnage

Designing puncture-resistant fabric dunnage means following some basic guidelines for protective panels, structural members, bonding, and fabric. Learn what they are.

Fabric Dunnage Materials: Laminated Fabrics vs. Coated Fabrics

Laminated fabrics for sewn fabric dunnage are composite materials with a layered structure. Two of more materials are bonded together to impart benefits.

Fabric Dunnage Materials: Coated Fabrics vs. Laminated Fabrics

Coated fabrics are fabric dunnage materials that consist of a woven or non-woven cloth with a specialized coating. Woven coated fabrics are in rack bags.

Brushed Tricot Fabric for Reusable Packaging

Brushed tricot fabric for reusable packaging is a soft liner-material that can be used with Class A surfaces such as chrome parts or faux wood panels.

How to Choose Plastic Doors for Fabric Dunnage

Plastic doors for fabric dunnage need to protect parts and withstand the environment. Here’s what packaging engineers need to consider.

Custom Tyvek for Reusable Packaging Strengthens Fabric Dunnage

Custom Tyvek for reusable packaging (sewn fabric dunnage) combines the advantages of Tyvek with a reinforcing scrim and easy-to-clean surface.

Rack Bag ROI: Calculate Your True Dunnage Costs

What are your dunnage costs? If you don’t know what you’re really paying for sewn fabric dunnage, you might be spending too much on packaging.

Automotive Rack Bags: Advantages and Applications

Automotive rack bags provide important advantages over automated dunnage that’s made of corrugated cardboard, plastic, and all metal.

How to Get the Automotive Dunnage That You Need

Do you enjoy a good story? Then kick back, relax, and learn how Patrick the packaging engineer got the automotive dunnage that he needed.

Velcro Straps for Sewn Fabric Dunnage

Velcro straps are used to secure loads in sewn fabric dunnage. Velcro is easier to open and close than cams, buckles, zippers, or other hardware.

Sewn Fabric Dunnage: Seven Solutions to Packaging Problems

The benefits of sewn fabric dunnage are clear. Yet there are also seven challenges that require expert packaging solutions.

Reusable Packaging Design: Seven Common Challenges

With reusable packaging design, there are seven common challenges to avoid. Do you know they are? Read this article to find out.

Capital Planning for Returnable Dunnage

Capital planning for returnable dunnage can help you reduce your packaging costs over the long haul. Hold-True explains what capital planners need to know.

Reusable Packaging: A Buyer’s Guide for Capital Planners

Get the buyer’s guide that capital planners need for reusable packaging. Learn which questions to ask and which assumptions to question.

Reusable Packaging: How CFOs Make Better Budget Decisions

With reusable packaging, chief financial officers (CFOs) need to meet three challenges: changing the mindset, filling the vacuum, finding the right partner.

Returnable Packaging Basics: Digital vs. Analog Design

For packaging engineers, a sound knowledge of returnable packaging basics begins with digital vs. analog design. How well do you understand the difference?

Class A Surfaces and Reusable Packaging Materials

Class A surfaces need to be handled with care. To prevent scratching, a reusable packaging material like brushed tricot fabric is used.

What Will Be the Top Reusable Packaging Posts of 2018?

The new year isn’t even here yet, but you’ll find the top reusable packaging posts of 2018 here at Hold-True. In the meantime, contact us for more information about sewn fabric dunnage for the automotive, heavy truck, power sports, and aerospace industries.

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Digital Designs and Returnable Packaging Basics

With rack bags, CAD programs can help you to determine which parts lay down and which parts stand up. CAD software is great for determining pocket sizes, too. Yet there are limitations to what digital technology can deliver. For example, a digital drawing won’t tell you if a part will tip one way or the other. You can’t tell how hard it will be load or unload a parts bag, and you won’t know if parts will cause the bag to tear.

That’s why Hold-True, an innovative supplier of returnable packaging, doesn’t just look at your design files. Rather, we ask questions, analyze your answers, and apply what we’ve learned.

With our hands-on approach, we’ll sketch rack bag designs on a white board and then cut and sew prototype bags that fit the racks you’ll use them with. At Hold-True, that’s what we call “analog design”. Compare our rigorous approach to sending your schematics to a design house that’s never loaded a fabric rack bag or used a sewing machine.

Analog Designs and Returnable Packaging Basics

Analog design is both creative and iterative. At Hold-True, we examine every aspect of returnable packaging design and make adjustments as necessary. If you ship us a sample part like the grill of a heavy truck, we’ll load it into your prototype bag to make sure the part’s weight doesn’t cause the fabric bag to lean. We’ll also look for ways to reduce material usage and speed production. If there’s a way to use a single piece of fabric instead of cutting the sides and roof, we’ll find it. Hold-True considers all the design tradeoffs, too.

For example, reducing the height of a fabric rack bag may keep it from leaning, but returnable packaging that’s too short won’t help your assemblers. Plastic shelves can provide stiffness, but a better polymer can add stability. Hold-True can also reduce rack bag weight and replace buckles with lightweight supports. By designing sewn fabric dunnage that used steel pipes instead of sequential buckles, we reduced weight and cost while increasing labor efficiency. This reusable packaging design reduced part damage, too.

Learn More About Returnable Packaging Basics

Do you need to design reusable packaging? Are you searching for a better supplier of sewn, reusable fabric dunnage? Hold-True is ready to answer your questions about returnable packaging basics. Contact us on-line to get started, and let us know you found this blog entry.

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Hold-True, a Made in the USA manufacturer of sewn fabric dunnage, helps packaging engineers and managers who want the best rack bags for the strongest ROI. There are different reasons why a reusable packaging design can fail, but there are seven common mistakes to avoid. Let’s look at these challenges so that you can design reusable packaging that’s durable, dependable, and cost-efficient.

Load Carrying

If the seams on your sewn fabric dunnage are tearing, there’s probably too much loading on the stitching. Remember that rack bags also include plastic shelves and metal racks that can help carry the weight. The best dunnage designs maximize these packaging support features.

Seam Construction

To keep seams from tearing, it’s important to reinforce the ends since that’s where seam stress is the highest. Reinforcing tabs can also prevent threads from pulling-out of the fabric. Seams can fail for other reasons as well, so make sure you understand all the potential challenges with threads and stitching.

Shelf Materials

The plastic shelves in reusable packaging are usually made of Pcorr or CON-Pearl®. Unlike Pcorr, CON-Pearl provides strength in every direction. If the plastic shelves on your rack bags are broken or pushed-in, then there’s probably too much spot loading. Webbing can help, but rack bag fabric can still tear since the webbing isn’t the primary load carrier.

Uprights

The uprights on rack bags can be sewn to the shelves, or sewn together. For best results, sew the shelves to the uprights.

Skid Plates

Sewn fabric dunnage that provides a strong ROI includes skid plates for resistance to abrasion, high wear, and sharp edges. Without skid plates, product loading can cause tearing to the packaging.

Fabric Selection

Some recyclable packaging spends as much as 50% of its life outdoors. That’s why it’s important to select rack bag fabric that resists water, weather, and sunlight. Fabric that isn’t UV-resistant becomes brittle, cracks, or turns yellow.

Rack Support

Packaging engineers can design rack bags for collapsible racks, but many packaging designs are too heavy or don’t stay within the footprint of the collapsed rack. If your reusable packaging needs to fit a collapsible rack, make sure to account for rack bag dimensions and weight.

Got a Question About Reusable Packaging Design?

Do you have questions about the seven common challenges with reusable packaging design? Then it’s time to get the answers you need from a design and manufacturing partner you can trust. To get started, contact Hold-True.

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For example, automotive racks bags are recyclable, collapsible, and stackable. By contrast, other types of automotive dunnage generate significant waste, take longer to setup, and require more space for fewer parts. Automotive rack bags also reduce inbound product damage while lowering the number of strapped parts. Sewn fabric dunnage weighs less than all-steel racks and some types of corrugated cardboard, too. In addition to saving you time and money, reusable rack bags reduce the size of your carbon footprint.

Automotive Rack Bags vs. Other Automotive Dunnage

Cardboard packaging consists of corrugated boxes and plastic dividers. Because these materials are expensive and the packaging is custom-made, companis are reluctant to discard this dunnage even when it’s damaged. When cardboard packaging reaches the end of its useful life, however, workers need to separate the cardboard boxes from the plastic dividers. Disposal is a messy, labor-intensive process that generates significant waste. Corrugated cardboard takes time to setup and can be heavy, too.

Plastic tubs and totes are relatively expensive. Some products collapse to save space, but other plastic dunnage does not. Plus, plastic tubs can require more room for the same number of parts. Some plastics are susceptible to cracking, too. Plastic totes are often used with smaller-sized parts, but putting a large number of totes on a pallet requires careful tracking. Disposing of plastic totes generates waste, and the foam inserts need to be separated from the tote itself.

All-steel racks are used with doors, windshields, engines, and other large parts. To protect surfaces such as windshield glass, custom-molded foam blocks are used. Other types of surfaces can be wrapped in plastic, but all of this expendable dunnage won’t help your sustainability initiatives. Automotive rack bags can integrate with metal racks and provide a reusable, recyclable alternative. With proper design and testing, sewn fabric dunnage can even accommodate large parts such as the crowns on heavy trucks.

Made in the USA Rack Bags

Would you like to learn more about automotive rack bags for your shipping, packaging, and assembly application? Hold-True, a Made in the USA manufacturer of sewn fabric dunnage, is ready to help. To get started, contact us.

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For packaging engineers, preventing punctures starts with analog design. Instead of just looking at your digital files, Hold-True loads and unloads sample parts into prototype WIP bags. Part drawings contain important information, but working off-line will reveal problems like point loading. Choosing a puncture-resistant base material is important, but you’ll also need to follow some design guidelines about protective panels, structural members, bonding, and fabrics.

Protective Panels

Protective panels that are made of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) provide protection against point loading and abrasion. Hold-True sews HDPE panels onto rack bags and can recommend the right sheet thickness to use for your application. With steel sun visors and other parts that have sharp metal corners, it’s important to avoid using HDPE sheets that are too light. Otherwise, the plastic can crinkle or bend. If additional support is required, structural members offer a solution.

Structural Members

CON-Pearl® is a structural plastic that’s both strong and lightweight. Unlike Pcorr, a type of corrugated plastic sheeting that’s used with sewn fabric dunnage, CON-Pearl® provides strength in every direction. Depending on the application, Hold-True may recommend using sheets of CON-Pearl® in thicknesses of 3/8” or 1/16”. Thicker sheets aren’t necessarily better, however. If a plastic sheet is too thick, parts like a cabinet with attachment points may dig through.

Bonding

As some packaging engineers have learned the hard way, it’s difficult to bond HDPE to CON-Pearl® with regular glues. Most bonding agents that adhere to one substrate won’t stick to the other. Even plastic glues don’t work well because the two substrate materials are so dissimilar on a molecular level. That’s why Hold-True uses a specialized glue to achieve strong, reliable bonds. This bonding agent costs more than regular glues, but provides a strong return on investment (ROI).

Fabric

Finally, Hold-True can incorporate thin pieces of fabric into your fabric dunnage design to support parts loading and unloading. Design houses that only look at digital files can tell you how much a part weighs, but they lack the application knowledge to support ease-of-use for assembly line workers. To learn more about how Hold-True uses analog design to make puncture-resistant fabric dunnage, please contact us.

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The seams on parts bags can fail for many reasons, but there are four that relate to threads and stitching.

• Thread type
• Thread weight
• Stitch count
• Stitch type

Let’s take a look at each one.

Thread Type

Using the wrong type of thread is a common mistake. That’s why it’s important to compare the rack bag environment to a thread’s material properties. If you’re designing sewn fabric dunnage that will be stored outdoors, remember that polyester thread offers greater weather resistance than cotton. Nylon thread is tough and durable, but will degrade when exposed to sunlight. Consider rack bag cleaning, too.

Thread Weight

Choosing the wrong thread weight can also cause seam failure. Thicker threads cost more, but they’re stronger. Thinner threads are lighter and less durable, but they cost less. Spools of thinner threads contain longer lengths, too. They’re easier to trim and may work well with a lighter-duty sewing machine, but using a lighter thread isn’t a bargain if your rack back design requires greater strength.

Stitch Count

Industrial sewing machines support a range of stitch counts. Because each stitch has an individual strength, increasing the number of stitches per inch increases the seam strength. In other words, a seam with 10 stitches per inch is stronger than a seam with 2 stiches per inch. More isn’t always better, however, and it’s possible to have too much of a good thing.

Stitching puts tiny holes into the base material. Because each stitch needs a hole for a knot, rack bags with more stiches have more holes. This can weaken the base fabric and allow sewn fabric dunnage to tear even when the seams remain intact. To avoid this problem, designers need a fabric dunnage supplier who can strike the right balance for stitch count.

Stitch Type

Lock stitches require a bobbin. With industrial sewing machines, these bobbins are large and time-consuming to change. Chain stitches offer an alternative, but it’s important to use lock stitches with sewn fabric dunnage. Otherwise, your rack bag’s seams can unravel. Lock stitching isn’t all you’ll need, however. When you use a lock stitch, use proper back-tacking to avoid having a single point failure.

Choose Sewn Fabric Dunnage from Hold-True

Hold-True, maker of Made in the USA fabric dunnage, supports rack back design by helping you choose the right thread type and thread weight. We use the right stitch counts and stitch techniques, understand how to prevent problems like sagging pockets on work-in-process bags, and can help you cut sewn fabric dunnage costs.

To request a quote or for more information, contact us.

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For the assembler, WIP bag pockets that sag aren’t just an inconvenience. Unlike the open pockets on clothing, the pockets on reusable packaging bags contain shelf-like structures made of plastic. If the shelves are too thin or too weak, damage to parts can occur. Damaged work-in-process bags can also incurs costs – and not just in terms of dunnage repairs. To account for parts bags that are out-of-service, WIP bag owners need to maintain fleets of returnable packaging products that are held in reserve.

WIP Bags and Dunnage Designs

When the pockets on a WIP bag sag, design flaws involving material selection are usually to blame. Pcorr, a common type of corrugated plastic sheeting with a fluted, I-beam like structure, is strong in just one direction. If a WIP bag part doesn’t lay perfectly flat, point loading can occur. Depending on the part’s shape, stress is concentrated in a single point or spot. This can cause the plastic to break, especially if a packaging designer has specified a 4 or 5 mil sheet that’s too thin for the application.

When dunnage is designed digitally, a packaging engineer may only account for the overall weight of the part. If the designer doesn’t consider part loading, stress calculations are incomplete. That’s why at Hold-True, we don’t just look at your CAD files. We load your sample parts into prototype bags to see if there’s pocket sag. We also account for the way that assembly personnel use work-in-process bags. If your design doesn’t account for how people grab and collapse WIP bags, we’ll address dunnage use (and misuse).

Choose Work-in-Process Bags from Hold-True

To strengthen your WIP bag designs, Hold-True may recommend CON-Pearl®, a strong but lightweight plastic material, for the shelves. Unlike Pcorr, CON-Pearl provides strength in every direction. The key to this advanced plastic is the middle layer, where “pearls” formed in polypropylene film support multi-dimensional stability. CON-Pearl isn’t required for every application, and some support structures may surprise you. With rack bags, steel tubes that support the shelves can be lighter than plastic.

Do you need work-in-process bags, or do you have questions about the best way to design WIP bags for your specific application? Skimping on shelving materials can reduce upfront costs, but you may face higher maintenance expenses and need larger fleet sizes. Failed shelves can mean higher inbound scrap rates, too. Sewn fabric dunnage that’s hard-to-clean also costs you time and money. To learn how Hold-True can help you, contact us.

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