| Air Bags |
|
| |
|
| |
A few companies have introduced various forms of inflated plastic bags to be used as packing. Such packing is soft, clean and could hardly be lighter. At the moment, air bags have a slight prestige as being "State of the Art" packing.
Yes, you can get them here in San Diego. |
| |
| Unfortunately several problems have kept the air bags from replacing peanuts. |
| |
| First, the bags are fairly expensive. Packing peanuts are cheaper. |
| |
| Second, bags could be punctured in transit. If one bag is punctured, nearly a pint of packing volume is instantly lost from the box and the load may become unsecure. We consider this a big risk. |
| |
| Third, and this is a minor problem, the bags expand and contract with changes in altitude. A box packed full in Denver might have 5% void in San Diego. |
| |
We have used a form of airbag manufactured by one of the larger packing material companies. We like them. The bags are joined in strips a hundred feet or so long, each individual bag containing about a pint of air. The packer simply tears off the length needed for the job. The bags cost more than packing peanuts but less than bubble pack. The bags are neater to use than packing peanuts and are very convenient to use for most packing jobs. They are reuseable. We think kids (of all ages) are going to love stomping them.
The small bags are sold packed in larger bags just like packing peanuts -- but the vendor also offers machinery for inflating the bags on site. One of the large mail order office supply companies is currently offering a similar machine. This system offers remarkable space savings in the packing area.
We don't stock them at all, but we can "Special Order" them for businesses in San Diego. |