Operation Ship It

Packaging Pitfalls

Shipping: Moving product from Point A to Point B in proper time and in good order.

Sound simple, but all too often it’s not. From getting the address right, to choosing the correct method of shipment (FedEx, Airborne, UPS, Blue, Ground, Super Saver etc), to improper handling by the chosen shipping company, all the way through to incorrect packaging – an error at this stage can be particularly demoralizing. It’s especially vexing in the present environment of just-in-time delivery. Everyone along the supply chain is hustling to meet desperate deadlines while attempting to perform complex manufacturing operations to perfection and when they successfully accomplish these tight-rope acts the last thing that occurs to them is that the product is going to; not arrive on time, get lost or sustain damage during shipping.

There is a long list of things that can be done to facilitate proper shipping, but in this piece we will take just a quick moment to focus on only one small leg of this journey, the physical packaging itself.

Many companies have long and detailed documents specifying every item of the shipping process. They get right down to the nitty-gritty. But as we all know, documentation is just one step in the process, ensuring personnel execute to plan is quite a different challenge. Here are a few pitfalls to try to work around or avoid.

The big-name shipping companies have rigid controls on handling, but as you probably know, "Brown" has a large 70lb package size limit. When a stout 70-pounds of anything takes a hard roll down a conveyor and lands on top of a lightly padded box, watch out! On top of that, despite the worthy efforts of all of us to select careful handlers, occasionally we get some, well, you know, brutes, the kind who actually throw boxes off of trucks onto the ground, performing multiple in-process drop checks. Combine these elements and you can see more than you fair share of these. See Photo 1 and 2.

Photo 1 and 2: Classic examples of shipping damage

Knowing a package can be subjected to these stresses can help one properly prepare an assembly with the correct padding and support to enable it to endure the stress of travel.

On top of the looming handling hazard you can add this; even experienced shippers, when they transfer from another industry may not be fully aware of the sensitivity of electronic products. Although a board may be big and unwieldy, there are usually mounted components that can be torn off by the pressure applied from a mere pinky finger. Further, the substrates (or boards) upon which components and hardware are mounted are as susceptible as stiff cardboard to being dinged on the corners due to a box’s shifting weight. With today’s densely loaded product that often means trouble as either internal ground planes or surface components along the edges are crunched in the dinging process. With that in mind it doesn’t make a great deal of sense to package product with insufficient internal padding (Photo 3) or without any separation at all, as in the case of the boards in Photo 4.

Photo 3: Collapsing dividers

Photo 4: No padding between boards

I can’t tell you how many times we have seen packages with wonderful padding on the bottom or top of the box and no padding in between the individual boards. When boards leave facilities for rework or other processing, shipping personnel are often working with non-standard packaging (as opposed to the clearly specified fashion in which boards leave the facility to go to their customer). It may be worthwhile to review with the shippers the best way to package the assemblies to avoid the issues pictured above.

Combine occasional rough handling with improper packaging and the results can be devastating. Below is not a reconstruction, but a picture of package we received. You can imagine the damage inflicted on the boards in Photo 5.

Photo 5: Unpadded boards receive shock test

So if you ever find yourself in the position of having to ship printed circuit boards or assemblies, take a moment to reflect on the pictures above. You just may save yourself some heartache.

Several members of the Circuit Technology Center team contributed to this feature story.