Rollguard Cushions the Ride for Roll-Up Doors
Trac-Rite finds a competitive edge in reduced dent damage with recycled fiber cradles
Trac-Rite Door was looking for a better, more cost-efficient way to protect its quality roll-up doors from dents during shipping and storage. The answer came in the form of Recycled Fiber roll cradles from Great Northern Corporation's Rollguard® Products.
Trac-Rite, a Sun Prairie, Wis., subsidiary of Trachte Building Systems, was using a combination of micro-foam and wood slats to palletize its roll-up doors. The doors, which are primarily used for self-storage units, are shipped all over the country via ground transportation. But the number of callbacks due to doors arriving with dents was a recurring problem.
"Being able to bring our doors to market without having to incur damage-related callbacks truly gives us a competitive advantage," explained Mike McCabe, director of production control at Trac-Rite Door. "We have to take every possible step to control our packaging costs. But it's just as important to protect the faith our customers have in each of our doors. Rollguard's roll cradles give us that competitive edge."
Made from recycled corrugated fiber pulp, the cradles are 100 percent recyclable and feature a strong yet flexible construction, coupled with an easy-to-load design. The recycled fiber holds up well against the weight and shape of the doors, as well as the demands associated with over-the-road shipping.
"We had to meet two main design requirements for the Trac-Rite cradles," said Gary Lawell, of Rollguard Products, Appleton, Wis. "First, they had to have the correct radius in order to perfectly match the door profile, thereby ensuring each door would rest securely in place without any shifting. Second, we needed to keep the doors from bumping together. Maintaining the integrity of a palletized load is easy when it's not moving. But that's certainly not the case when it's being shipped cross-country."
Trac-Rite uses two unique cradle configurations for shipping its doors, each featuring a 14-inch radius and an approximate length of 44 inches. The cradle for the base is a single-sided Rollgurad and Trac-Rite/ADD ONE piece that sits flat and widthwise on the pallet to hold the first layer of three doors. The second cradle configuration is double-sided and fits between subsequent layers. A single-sided layer of cradles is placed atop the finished pallet. Trac-Rite ships up to 17 doors per pallet - five layers of three and one layer of two.
To maximum load stability and further restrict shifting, each palletized load is stretch wrapped. The continuous tension of the plastic wrap unitizes the entire pallet and also protects the doors and components from weather damage.
"The use of Recycled Fiber roll cradles in conjunction with stretch wrapping holds our doors in place during shipping and has significantly reduced rattling that can lead to dented product," McCabe said. "The cushioning of the cradles keeps the doors from banging against each other, causing dents. We've seen a significant drop in the number of callbacks due to product damage in shipping. Even our installers are saying they're very impressed with the good condition of the doors."
The shift to Recycled Fiber roll cradles has streamlined the palletizing process. Instead of having to deal with two materials - the micro-foam and wooden slats - operators only have a single item to place, so it takes less time to build each pallet. And because they are made from recycled corrugated fiber pulp, the cradles are 100 percent recyclable, which helps reduce the amount of construction-related material going to a landfill.
"Our switch to the Rollguard cradles is a win-win situation from every perspective," McCabe said. "We've found a cost-effective protective packaging solution that helps us get our product to market in great shape. It's what our customers demand of us."
Great Northern Corporation's Rollguard Products (www.rollguard.com) is the industry-leading developer and supplier of protective packaging systems for rolled and cylindrical products. It offers one of the broadest selections of stock sizes of foam, fiber and plastic roll cradles. In addition to Recycled Fiber cradles, major product lines include Rollguard® Narrow Fiber, Full Roll, EPS Foam and Thermoformed cradles. Product inquiries can be directed to Janet Keyes at (800) 925-2626 or by e-mail at jkeyes@greatnortherncorp.com.
Media Contact:
Tom Lyons
Directions, Inc.
(920) 725-4848
tlyons@directions.com
