Whether it is returnable or single-trip – packaging plays a vital role for enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale, and use. Packaging can be described as a coordinated system of preparing goods for transport, warehousing, logistics, sale, and end use.
Packaging has several objectives:
Physical protection. The objects enclosed in the package may require protection from, vibration, compression, temperature, to maintain optimum quality.
Security. Packaging can play an important role in reducing the security risks of shipment. Packages can be made with improved tamper resistance, anti-theft devices, such as dye packs, and RFID tags. PPS’s returnable packaging can be monitored with their own Online Trace and Tracking System – Enable™. Using this is a way of loss prevention.
Convenience. Packages can have features that add convenience in distribution, handling, stacking, opening, use, dispensing, returning, reusing, recycling, and ease of disposal.
Containment or agglomeration. Smaller objects are typically grouped together in one package for reasons of efficiency.
Information transmission. Packages and labels communicate how to use, transport, return, recycle, or dispose of the package or product.
Packaging Types
Packaging may be looked at as being of several different types. For example a transport package or distribution package can be the shipping container used to ship, store, and handle the product or inner packages. Some identify a consumer package as one which is directed toward a consumer or household.
It is sometimes convenient to categorise packages by layer or function: "primary", "secondary", etc.
Primary packaging is the material that first envelops the product and holds it. This usually is the smallest unit of distribution or use and is the package which is in direct contact with the contents.
Secondary packaging is outside the primary packaging, perhaps used to group primary packages together.
Tertiary packaging is used for bulk handling, warehouse storage and transport shipping. The most common form is a palletised unit load that packs tightly into containers.
Although depending on the use, a shrink wrap can be primary packaging when applied directly to the product, secondary packaging when combining smaller packages and tertiary packaging on some distribution packs.
Transport packaging needs to be matched to its logistics system, as packages designed for controlled shipments of uniform pallet loads may not be suited to mixed shipments with express carriers.
An example of how package design is affected by other factors is the relationship to logistics. When the distribution system includes individual shipments by a small parcel carrier, the sortation, handling, and mixed stacking make severe demands on the strength and protective ability of the transport package. If the logistics system consists of uniform palletised unit loads, the structural design of the package can be designed to those specific needs: vertical stacking, perhaps for a longer time frame. A package designed for one mode of shipment may not be suited for another.
Food Packaging
Packaging that may contact with food must be made with food grade materials. Toxicologists and food scientists need to verify that the packaging materials are allowed by applicable regulations. Packaging engineers need to verify that the completed package will keep the product safe for its intended shelf life with normal usage.
