two modern chairs and small wooden table on left with blue box on right with white text saying furniture packaging: supplies and equipment

Furniture Packaging: Supplies and Equipment 

In homes and businesses around the world, furniture is essential part of everyday life. From your favorite comfy recliner that takes center stage in the family room to the elegant wood tables found in your office’s conference room, there are a diverse range of options available. What many never consider is just how exactly those bookcases or desks get from the manufacturer to retail outlets or to the end users themselves. Furniture can be large and bulky, fragile and delicate, and is almost always easily susceptible to damage. That means it needs to be treated with immense care as it travels in a shipping container or on the back of a delivery truck. Anyone working in the industry needs to understand the ideal furniture packaging supplies and equipment that will offer the best protection to the items it safeguards. Take a look at some of the different packaging materials you should plan to use as your furniture makes its way to your customers. 

Stretch Film 

A lot of furniture comes with multiple parts. Just think about – your couch usually has three separate cushions, your desk dresser has a few individual drawers, and your bed frame generally ships in multiple pieces before it’s been fully assembled. Stretch film, also frequently called stretch wrap, is a simple and effective way to bundle these items together in order to prevent them from separating during transit. It also works well to protect delicate surfaces like wood or glass against scratches and blemishes. Stretch film can be applied by hand or with the help of a semi- or fully automatic stretch wrap machine.  

Stretch Wrap Machines 

Though stretch film can be applied by hand when bundling together cushions or drawers, it is much more effective and efficient to use an automatic stretch wrap machine. Automated packaging equipment wraps products with a much higher degree of consistency, is able to quickly cover the load from top to bottom, and can provide the exact amount of tension needed to effectively bundle the item without wasting material. In fact, a stretch wrap machine can bring as much as 50% in material cost savings and can wrap up to 150 loads per hour or more, depending on the specific load and equipment itself. 

man stapling upholstery and batting to wood chair frame

Tape 

Just like furniture, there is a huge variety of packaging tape available on the market. There’s acrylic tape, hot melt tape, water-activated tape, rubber tape, and much, much more. When it comes to furniture packaging, tape can have a wide range of uses, but one of the most important is protection. For example, you may need to wrap a corrugated sheet or bubble film around the flat top portions of a desk to prepare them for shipment. These materials do an excellent job preventing damage, but tape is what will keep them in place and stop them from falling off the furniture. Furthermore, tape is also a necessity for case sealing. When it comes time to place items into corrugated boxes or containers, tape will be just what you need to hold those boxes securely together. And you can even do so more effectively with the help of an automatic carton sealer

Strapping and Strapping Tools 

One key type of furniture that many forget to consider is partitions. Think about a stereotypical office environment. It’s pretty likely that cubicles are a major feature in the image that comes to your mind. Those cubes very rarely arrive as assembled sets – each individual wall (or partition) is generally shipped separately. No matter what, they can get pretty bulky and it is sometimes easier to bundle them together using poly strapping. Plastic strapping, including polypropylene strapping and polyester strapping, offers incredible benefits and strength when it comes to holding bundles together. Whichever kind of plastic strap you prefer, it will need to be applied with the help of a strapping tool. Poly strapping tools come in manual, pneumatic, and automatic, but the battery-powered automatic strapping tools usually offer the most premium capabilities.  

Custom Engineering and Custom Solutions for Furniture Packaging 

With such a massive market for different kinds of furniture, it only makes sense that many buyers want something unique for their homes and offices. Along with these custom pieces come unique challenges in how to get the products from Point A to Point B without damage. Thankfully, IPS Packaging & Automation is here to assist with our custom packaging engineering services. Our team of expert packaging engineers will work with you and your unique products to find the ideal solution for packaging protection. Whatever kind of material you want to work with, these highly trained, knowledgeable engineers are here to help. We can even help you find a sustainable packaging solution that protects both the environment and your furniture. If you’re ready to get started on the right furniture packaging or even just have a few questions about your current process, contact us today or give us a call at (800) 277-7007.