Packing, Shipping & Moving News & Information

September 21, 2005

Steve Madsen

© 2005 Pac-n-Seal.com

Choosing the proper sealer for the job at hand is essential. Choose the wrong one and your packaging operations will grind to a halt.

What you're sealing and how many need to be done per day or per hour will be the determining factors in the sealer you eventually purchase.

The basic types of sealers are single impulse, double impulse and constant heat.

Single impulse units utilize a single piece of Ni-Chrome wire mounted either in the upper or lower jaw of the sealer to produce the desired seal. Single impulse units use either a round wire element or a flat wire element of various widths. Round wire elements are typically used for what is called cut and seal operations such as working with shrink film. Flat wire elements are available in widths from 1/8" to 3/8" with the 1/8" width being the most popular by far.

Double impulse sealers just what they sound like. These units have an element in both the upper and lower jaws of the machine. Double impulse sealers are normally used in the sealing of thick materials, usually up to 20 mil as well as sealing foil bags.

Constant heat sealers, as oppossed to impulse sealers are always on and ready to go. The units use an electrical resistance heater mounted either in or on the sealing bars. The sealing surface of these bars is typically designed to yeild a cross-hatch pattern in the seal but is also available in a horizontal line pattern as well. Temperature on these units is controlled by a thermostat and a thermalcouple is attached to one of the bars to turn power on and off to the heaters as needed to maintain temperature.

Now that you know the types of sealers out there, we can discuss the different designs. These include hand operated, foot operated and automatic models.

Hand operated units sit on top of a table or bench and are operated by lowering a hinged arm down onto the material being sealed with one hand while holding the material with the other hand.

Foot operated impulse sealers work in the exact same way, but are instead freestanding units that are mounted on a pedestal base and vertical tube. These sealers are activated by depressing a foot pedal mounted on the front of the unit. Being foot operated, this leaves both hands free to move the product in and out of the machine to increase production.

Automatic impulse sealers, like the hand operated units, are set on top of a table or workbench, but these units once the timers are set properly will operate automatically without any input from the operator. The timers will control when the jaw closes, how long the element wire is energized and then the cooling or congealing time before the jaw opens back up. This makes for the most consistant seals as it eliminates operator error. Most sealers of this type also have a manual override switch to make the unit cycle between timer settings if needed.

Once you have decided on the style of unit you will need - hand, foot or automatic, and then the amount of sealing power you need - single/double impulse or constant heat, you still have a couple of more things to decide on.

Depending on the impulse sealer you're considering and the material you're packaging, you may need to decide on the seal width you need to make. Typical choices are a thin, round wire seal and then the flat wire seals that come in 2mm, 5mm, and 10mm.

Impulse sealers are built around the size of the element wire to be used. This means that the transformer mounted inside the unit is specifically designed to power a certain element wire. The only interchangability is with the round wire and 2mm flat element wires.

For example, put a 10mm element wire in a unit powered for with a transformer for a 2mm element and virtually nothing will happen. Conversely, put a round wire element in a unit designed for a 10mm element and see just how fast that wire melts away!

Match the seal width to the job at hand. Round wire elements are normally used in shrink wrapping work or where a thin, narrow seal will suffice. 2mm wide seals are considered standard and are used to creat seals on most packaging. A 5mm seal width is used where a stronger seal is required for either package strength or seal integrity such as food product packaging. The extra wide 10mm seal is most commonly used in medical and dental product packaging where seal integrity is of the utmost importance.

The remaining choice, if you've decided to go with a hand operated impulse sealer is whether or not to opt for the unit with the built-in trimmer which will cutt off excess material to within 1/4" of the seal as it is being made. These sealers a sliding handle in the arm with a 2 sided blade attached to remove excess bag material. As the seal is being made, the operator slides the handle along its track and the cut is made.

Armed with this information you should now be able to make an informed decision and choose the correct machine for your application that will perform well and last a long time.

About the author - Steve Madsen is the owner of www.pacnseal.com, a Suffolk, Virginia based packing and shipping supply company that ships throughout the US and Canada. He has written numerous articles to help business owners with their packaging operations and participates on several internet forums answering quetions and offering advice.

# posted by Pac-n-Seal.com @ 8:33 AM

Visit us at www.pacnseal.com for all of your packing and shipping needs.

New Arrivals:

Packing List Envelopes And More

Cardboard & Plastic Bin Boxes

Box Paint And Stenciling Ink

Color Cardboard Tubes

Cardboard Sheets

A Larger Selection Of Impulse Sealers And Parts

Standing Out From The Crowd

July 27, 2005

How does a small company or individual eBay seller who wants to get big one day do it? The answer is easy - they work hard to stand out from an already crowded field to have their product, service and name recognized before the others.

This can be acheived several ways:

First, is to simply have a better product than your competition does.

Next, is to do it better and faster than the other guy.

Yet another way to separate yourself from the crowd is to deliver your merchandise in a way that stands out and is remembered by the receiver.

An example of this might be who's box of widgets is more likely to be remembered first at re-order time, the one that arrives in a plain brown box with clear tape or the one that arrives in a white box sealed with red, blue, green or yellow tape? Obviously the white box will be remembered because it is different from the rest and provided the net cost to the customer is relatively close, chances are the better remembered package and company will come to mind first therefore getting the next order.

When it comes to gaining repeat customers, it's not always the best price that brings people back for more. You may charge a little more, but if your overall service is superior and you get name and/or product recognition, you will get quality customers coming back as oppossed to the ones only looking for the rock bottom price and who tend to complain the most as well.

If your selling over the web, the first "hands on" impression your customer gets is when the order is delivered. That's where the the first impression truly takes place. If the package arrives looking right, it extends an aire of quality, professionalism and attention to detail that leaves an indelible mental impression on the customer regardless how ordinary the product might be.

Once you have the customers attention when the package arrives, they can't help but open yours first to reveal its contents. The customer never expected such an eye catching package usually get fixated on it and just have to open it. In doing so not only is the packaging remembered, but so is your name. Chances are good that your name will come up in conversation as well and possibly generate more business.

Depending on your particular market, further lasting impressions can be made inside the package as well. Matching or contrasting color tissue paper can highlight the item as can packing peanuts. Instead of white, pink or green alone, you can mix pink and green together for a different look.

If your products are shipped in cardboard tubes such as posters, artwork, blueprints or fabric, a great impact can be made with colored tubes instead of plain kraft for little extra expense.

It goes without saying that no matter how colorful and impressive your packaging may be, it means nothing it is not packaged properly to arrive in one piece.

No matter who the carrier is, UPS, FexEx, USPS, etc., you can be sure that your packages will ride a myriad of conveyor belts, get tossed around some and will fall down at least one mail chute along the way. You can also rest assured that in all likelyhood, the "Handle With Care" label won't make a bit of difference to a package sorter if it is even noticed at all.

With said, you need to pay attention to what is in the inside of the package as well as the outside. Be sure to package things with the above paragraph in mind. Bubble Wrap, loose fill peanuts, tissue paper, foam, and the other various types of inner protection that are available make it easy to do a good job and get the customers order delivered in one piece.

A stand out splash of color will get you and your product remembered and proper packaging will get it there safely so everyone is happy at the end of the day.

# posted by Pac-n-Seal.com @ 11:34 AM

If the U.S. Postal Service has its way, "the check is in the mail" excuse will no longer be valid. The company that sent you the bill could verify whether you're bluffing through a bar code on the return envelope scanned by the Postal Service.

That tracking system, which starts this month, is one way the Postal Service is making first-class mail such as bills and personal correspondence more valuable, in a world full of e-mail and electronic documents. Meanwhile, the red, white and blue may just become a serious competitor to brown—United Parcel Service in small package delivery

The Postal Service says a financial institution will test the system in July by using the new bar code. The customer will track mail as it winds through the Postal Service's 283 processing and distribution centers across the country. Currently, mail is mostly scanned at the beginning and delivery points.

By year's end, all letter mail could be tracked at Postal Service facilities. The Postal Service will add commercial customers throughout 2006.

The Postal Service plans to win favor with large first-class mailers—groups such as financial institutions that send bills, customer correspondence and statements. Such customers send 50 billion pieces of mail a year. But the bar-coding tracking system is just one way the USPS is winning customers as it carries out a transformation plan launched in 2002. The Postal Service has: Revamped its Web site to become an e-commerce portal, now serving 2.2 million visitors a day. Introduced new services such as Click-N-Ship, an online postage printing service, to generate more than $200 million in revenue. Created better mail tracking through a service called Confirm, which allows business customers to follow mail through the Postal Service's automated systems.

"There's a lot of interest in making first-class mail more intelligent," says Charlie Bravo, senior vice president of intelligent mail and address quality at the Postal Service.

The core of that campaign is the bar-code tracking system. Here's how it would work.

A direct marketer, such as Williams-Sonoma, would know when you received a catalog with 99% accuracy, because each piece would be scanned before it hit a mail deliverer's bag. A utility company would reduce phone costs—and annoyed customers—if it could verify on a USPS-run Web site that your check was indeed in the mail. A credit card company, such as MBNA, could bring in additional clerks when it saw an unusual spike in payments on the way.

In many respects, the Postal Service is catching up to the techniques pioneered by Federal Express with packages. It's also a defense strategy. The Postal Service, which has a monopoly in mail, has to make first-class mail more relevant since it accounts for more than half of the organization's $69 billion in annual revenue.

Kate Siggerud, director of physical infrastructure issues at the Government Accountability Office, says first-class mail is one of the Postal Service's biggest challenges. In 2004, first-class mail volume fell 1.1%, the third consecutive annual decline.

So far, the Postal Service has weathered the declines by boosting efficiency. According to the GAO, the Postal Service's productivity increased 5.2% from fiscal 2001 to 2004 as it cut costs and work hours. The Postal Service, which has 707,000 employees, down 9.4% from 2001, cut debt to $1.8 billion for the year ended Sept. 30, 2004, down from $11.3 billion in 2001. Operating margin was 4.6% for fiscal 2004, up from 1.8% in 2002. The technology campaign also helped: Consolidating systems saves $100 million a year.

Still, the Postal Service has challenges. Its facilities, compiled over decades, often don't share common equipment, specifications and processes. That means the Postal Service can't replicate the productivity of a company like Wal-Mart, which builds nearly identical distribution centers. It doesn't own its transportation network and is saddled with excess capacity. The cumulative effect is that the service can become more efficient, but may hit a productivity wall given its infrastructure and high pension costs, Siggerud says.

"[The Postal Service has] been making some noticeable improvements four years in a row," she says. "They're on the right track, but still have more to do."

Small steps

Nevertheless, the Postal Service has come far enough that it can't be dismissed. In a June 9 report, Morgan Stanley analyst James Valentine says the Postal Service is a viable threat to United Parcel Service for shipping small packages from businesses to consumers.

"The U.S. Postal Service is often overlooked as a competitive threat to UPS, but we believe it's a force to be watched," Valentine says. "Its improved service is putting pressure on UPS' pricing where they compete."

The Postal Service competes with UPS on two fronts: overnight mail and delivering lightweight parcels such as books and music. Improved service along with steady prices since 2002 has made the Postal Service "all that more attractive to shippers," Valentine says.

However, getting to the point where it could compete meant the Postal Service had to update and consolidate its technology infrastructure, says USPS chief technology officer Bob Otto.

The Postal Service's first move was to standardize its personal computers and software for its 245,000 users to make maintenance easier. The organization also consolidated 15,000 Unix servers to about 1,200 to 1,500, saving $50 million a year. Application and network maintenance was consolidated in two computing centers in Eagan, Minn., and San Mateo, Calif., to save another $50 million annually.

The Postal Service also shared technology services across departments such as finance, human resources and help desk. Otto whittled 119 technology help desks to three. By centralizing finance operations, the Postal Service saved $60 million a year and cut 750 positions.

"We just accumulated a lot over the years," Otto explains. "In the last five years, we modernized everything."

Defending Its Turf

As Otto was cutting technology costs, Bravo in 2003 formed the engineering, marketing and technology groups that would make first-class mail more valuable to large mailers. Their mission: to create a bar-code system to accommodate all services, including Confirm, delivery confirmation and certified mail. Previously, the Postal Service created a new bar code every time a service was launched. The end result was as many as 30 types of bar codes.

Bravo needed to pack more information on bar codes so one system could account for multiple services and mail types like "flat" mail, which consists of items like magazines and newspapers. The group settled on a 31-digit bar code, up from the 9-digit code then in use, that could be easily printed on ink-jet and laser printers. The new code would require few software changes for most of the Postal Service's customers, which range from small businesses to credit card giants to non-profit organizations.

If the implementation is successful, customers will be able to get tracking information on any piece of mail.

Next up: Another transformation plan due in September to take the Postal Service to 2010. That plan will cover potential changes such as further automation of processing centers and retooling older facilities.

# posted by Pac-n-Seal.com @ 8:22 AM

Postmaster Ginette Simpson sees a lot of transient faces at her small post office in Hostetter, Unity Township.

"They come in with a lot of packages at any given time," she said.

They are part of the growing number of eBayers who have increased the volume of parcels in post offices all over the country, from tiny rural sites to metropolitan offices.

According to eWeek Enterprise News & Reviews, the popularity of Internet communication put a dent in first-class mail handled by the U.S. Postal Service.

However, the rise in eBay commerce picked up that decline in volume. The Postal Service handled 90.1 billion pieces of mail in 2000, then only 87.2 billion pieces in 2002. In 2004, the volume dramatically increased, to 95.6 billion pieces, eWeek reported.

"According to eBay officials, at any given time, there are more than 25 million items for sale on eBay," said Diana Svoboda, a communications specialist with the Postal Service in Pittsburgh.

That includes the ordinary to the strange, items that a decade ago would have been sold at flea markets or yard sales, or even thrown away. Now eBayers are shipping it all across the country and around the world.

Linda Noel, postmaster at Forbes Road for 12 years, has about a dozen eBay customers who come in once every week or two.

"I love the stories they tell," she said. "One woman mailed a pair of nylon stockings -- not pantyhose -- with seams, and got $25 for them. Another customer paid $5 for an old Bundt pan at a flea market and sold it for $300. Another bought a vintage pink canister set for 50 cents and sold it for $80."

Then there was an old high school varsity jacket that was purchased for 50 cents and sold for $60.

Someone even unloaded a mint-green polyester suit with pearl buttons. The local hawker advertised it on eBay as perfect for a Texas oil tycoon, and sold it to an oil company executive who collected oil memorabilia.

Some of Noel's customers ship old books and used CDs, but more recently, she sees fewer of them as they opt for more convenient USPS services.

"I used to have a customer who shipped out glassware on a regular basis, but now she uses home pickup," said Simpson, who has been at Hostetter since 1993.

They started working with eBay in September 2003, and shipping is now easier for people who don't want to stand in line or wait while their parcels are being processed.

"They have teamed up to offer sellers one-stop shipping that currently includes fully integrated shipping solutions on the eBay Web site," Svoboda said.

Sellers can calculate rates on their own scales or use one of the Postal Service's priority flat-rate envelopes or boxes. Then they print out mailing labels and charge the postage to their credit cards, or pay through the PayPal, an online payment service. The service also includes free tracking.

Sellers can take their readied parcels to any post office, drop them into mailboxes if they fit, or contact their local post office for next-day pickup.

"Carrier pickup has become quite a big thing," Greensburg assistant postmaster Jeff Gogets said. "And it gets bigger and bigger every day. One local business that advertises on eBay has 20 to 25 packages picked up daily, and we're seeing more and more of this throughout the county."

Priority boxes and envelopes are free at local offices, and customers can order certain other free supplies that are shipped directly to their homes. There are even boxes that carry both the Postal Service and eBay logos.

"People can get free priority boxes, free delivery confirmation, and combine that with carrier pickup, and that's hard to beat," Gogets said. "We are helping customers, and they are helping us."

# posted by Pac-n-Seal.com @ 7:16 AM

In a continuing effort to better serve our corporate and small business customers, Pac-n-Seal has now added American Express to the list of credit cards we now accept.

Not only do we now take American Express, but the added benefit is that the processing goes directly through American Express and not through a third party service provider thereby making it acceptable to government and large corporations who do not allow the use of third party credit card processors.

The Pac-n-Seal secure shopping cart has been updated to include the choice of American Express cards in addition to the Visa, Master Card and Discover cards we've always taken as well as mail in payments such as checks and money orders.

# posted by Pac-n-Seal.com @ 5:56 AM