Crate-free packaging for export machinery

The client is a heavy machine-tool maker in the Yangtze River Delta, shipping equipment to Southeast Asia and Europe.

What they used: plywood crates plus fumigation. Three problems — fumigation takes 3–7 days, so meeting a sailing date meant carrying stock; crate weight ate about 18% of the truck load, adding RMB 280k of sea freight a year; and crates drew moisture in the rainy season, rusting the base frames and twice getting shipments held and claimed by overseas customers.

What we changed: seven-ply triple-wall board replaced the crate structure, locally reinforced at the machine's centre of gravity, honeycomb corner guards, and a fumigation-free plywood pallet underneath. Drop and stack tests were run on the prototype before it was signed off.

Result: total packaging cost per unit down 32%, container load up 35%, damage rate from 12% to 1.2%.