Distributor prevents packaging from eating away at the bottom line

Corrosion Materials, with headquarters in Baker, La., and additional warehouse facilities in Houston and Chicago, distributes corrosion-resistant alloys that are fabricated into products for industries such as petrochemical, chemical process, oil field, pharmaceutical and desalinization operations. After switching to a recyclable paperboard packaging solution, the company saved money when shipping long and narrow products.

The company’s previous approach to shipping its specialized alloys, pipes and round bars was very labor intensive. Employees used power tools and saws to prepare PVC cylinders and wooden crates to package product. Corrosion Materials ships globally from all three of its locations and uses all modes of transportation, from container ships to planes, to common carrier and dedicated carrier trucks. Some of the alloys are particularly sensitive to scratching and/or denting, so protective packaging is critical to customer satisfaction.

“When products are exposed to corrosive agents, they will typically attack those areas where there is scratching or a ding,” says Rob Hanks, operations manager for Corrosion Materials. “We tried some samples of the new paperboard packaging and fine-tuned the specifications a bit, and we have been using it for going on two years now.”

The new packaging (Laminations, laminationsonline.com) consists of seamless U-shaped paperboard channels that fit snugly together to ship long, narrow products. Hanks says the solution has reduced packaging costs and is easier to handle and discard on the customer’s end because it’s 100% recyclable.

“It’s easier and quicker for us to fabricate our packaging since it’s pretty much pre-made,” he says. “We now use it to ship most of our products from all three locations, and we have had zero issues with product damage.”