What is the Packaging Solution Center? What is the Packaging Solution Center?

What is the Packaging Solution Center?

The Packaging Solution Center in Charlotte, NC is home to the most advanced research, testing, and monitoring equipment in the packaging industry. Atlantic Packaging invested over $10 million to bring together technology and solutions that let us engage with the science behind packaging and use this knowledge and data to create proven solutions for our customers.

The centerpiece of the facility is the TruMotion Transportation Simulator and Braking & Impact Test Sled, two pieces ideal for load containment testing. They were both built by Lansmont and TEAM Corporation, leaders in vibration testing and engineers of equipment that measures and simulates real-world transit dynamics.

The Center also features materials and equipment for e-commerce fulfillment, end-of-line packaging automation, and a high-performance Film Lab. This all serves our mission to help our customers achieve more sustainable packaging.
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History of the Packaging Solution Center
Packaging plays a critical role in our everyday lives. It serves to protect products as they are shipped, stored, sold, and used. This includes products like fresh food and snack foods, home goods, recreational gear, and all manner of products you find at retail stores whether you're shopping in-person or online.

Because packaging is ultimately discarded - or ideally recycled if it meets the right criteria - how we design, apply, and choose that packaging is so important. If we do it right, it could stem the tide of waste and pollution and revolutionize how packaging impacts the environment.

Historically, the art and science of packaging was left to R&D departments and to educational institutions. This is where you'll find most packaging engineers at work.

The benefits of testing and proving out packaging solutions was not generally extended to the actual users of that packaging. Consumer goods manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers had to depend on their suppliers to provide (hopefully) the best solutions, while they tried to hit just the right balance between cost and performance.

And then they had to rely on trial and error to get the formulas just right to protect their products during transit. This is an imperfect and potentially costly process that could also hurt a brand's reputation if products arrive at their destination damaged.

Add to all this the increasing demand from consumers to reject single-use plastics and adopt more sustainable packaging, and these companies and brands were looking for solutions that they could confidently implement at their facilities.

Atlantic knew we could find a way to get smart packaging solutions into the right hands. And we knew this would have radical implications up and down the supply chain.

Our company has long employed talented technicians who are experts in packaging equipment to help our customers keep their lines up and running. Then, in 2011 and 2012, Atlantic hired their first packaging engineer, Kyle Pischel, and film specialist, John Cook. These positions gave us greater depth and insight into how to recommend the best solutions for each application.

With these resources, we launched Stretch University to help educate our customers on the science of stretch wrapping. It's difficult to simply observe the difference between a properly wrapped pallet and one that will lead to failure and damage. We wanted to expose and explain the elements that make up a properly wrapped pallet and demonstrate the overall effect this can have on reducing damage, saving costs, and meeting sustainability goals.

We had great interest and participation in Stretch University and wanted to evolve this into a way to engineer and deliver data-driven, proven solutions for our customers.

Introducing the Packaging Solution Center.

Launched in 2017, this facility was our answer to bringing testing and optimization directly to the users of packaging. We're now in a position to accept our customers' most challenging packaging issues, test our ideas in a lab setting, find proven solutions for sustainable packaging, and help our customers apply those solutions in their own facilities.

The Packaging Solution Center, along with the engineers that run it, is a powerful tool to optimize the amount of packaging being used in any application, eliminate damage, and confidently make the switch to sustainable packaging. We invite you to connect with us and set up a time to ship us your products so we can study your current packaging and find a solution that meets your sustainability goals.
With A New Earth Project, we're helping manufacturers and retailers in the outdoor industry make the move to sustainable packaging, particularly for their e-commerce shipments. Here's how the Solution Center can help facilitate this move.

RIGHT SIZING

A big challenge in e-commerce fulfillment is choosing the right box or mailer to accommodate a variety of product combinations being packed and shipped at any given time. If a box is too big, you end up using too much void fill material, adding to both cost and waste, and you increase the dimensional weight of the package, increasing shipping costs.

If you leave it up to the packer to choose the right size, you're adding time and human error to the equation.

We can demonstrate solutions that not only address the issue of right sizing and when to choose a mailer over a box, but that also optimizes and automates the packaging process for greater efficiency.

PROTECTIVE PACKAGING

The basic assumption when consumers shop online is that their products will arrive safely and intact. It's critical for brand owners to get this right because studies have shown that consumers will associate a damaged product with the brand, not with the carrier.

Additionally, online shoppers are ultra-sensitive to the type and amount of packaging they get when their products arrive in their home.

Our e-commerce testing capabilities offer the latest in fully curbside recyclable protective packaging materials and equipment from Ranpak to help you choose the solution that will best protect your products.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

The basic assumption when consumers shop online is that their products will arrive safely and intact. It's critical for brand owners to get this right because studies have shown that consumers will associate a damaged product with the brand, not with the carrier.

Additionally, online shoppers are ultra-sensitive to the type and amount of packaging they get when their products arrive in their home.

Our e-commerce testing capabilities offer the latest in fully curbside recyclable protective packaging materials and equipment from Ranpak to help you choose the solution that will best protect your products.

TRANSPORTATION TESTING

The Packaging Solution Center is home to the packaging industry's only Multi-Axis Transportation Simulator, a load containment testing system that simulates real-world transit conditions.

It is also home to an acceleration and deceleration sled that controls speed and impact to test the effects of acceleration and braking on wrapped loads during transit.

We are an ISTA Certified testing facility in case you're in need of certifying the testing and the efficacy of our provided solutions.

We can use this testing equipment if you're experiencing damage in transit. We can re-create your specific route in our equipment to see where and how your packaging is failing. This allows us to create customized solutions based on scientific data, virtually eliminating shipping damage and reducing overall packaging costs.

RIGHT SIZING

A big challenge in e-commerce fulfillment is choosing the right box or mailer to accommodate a variety of product combinations being packed and shipped at any given time. If a box is too big, you end up using too much void fill material, adding to both cost and waste, and you increase the dimensional weight of the package, increasing shipping costs.

If you leave it up to the packer to choose the right size, you're adding time and human error to the equation.

We can demonstrate solutions that not only address the issue of right sizing and when to choose a mailer over a box, but that also optimizes and automates the packaging process for greater efficiency.

PROTECTIVE PACKAGING

The basic assumption when consumers shop online is that their products will arrive safely and intact. It's critical for brand owners to get this right because studies have shown that consumers will associate a damaged product with the brand, not with the carrier.

Additionally, online shoppers are ultra-sensitive to the type and amount of packaging they get when their products arrive in their home.

Our e-commerce testing capabilities offer the latest in fully curbside recyclable protective packaging materials and equipment from Ranpak to help you choose the solution that will best protect your products.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

The basic assumption when consumers shop online is that their products will arrive safely and intact. It's critical for brand owners to get this right because studies have shown that consumers will associate a damaged product with the brand, not with the carrier.

Additionally, online shoppers are ultra-sensitive to the type and amount of packaging they get when their products arrive in their home.

Our e-commerce testing capabilities offer the latest in fully curbside recyclable protective packaging materials and equipment from Ranpak to help you choose the solution that will best protect your products.

TRANSPORTATION TESTING

The Packaging Solution Center is home to the packaging industry's only Multi-Axis Transportation Simulator, a load containment testing system that simulates real-world transit conditions.

It is also home to an acceleration and deceleration sled that controls speed and impact to test the effects of acceleration and braking on wrapped loads during transit.

We are an ISTA Certified testing facility in case you're in need of certifying the testing and the efficacy of our provided solutions.

We can use this testing equipment if you're experiencing damage in transit. We can re-create your specific route in our equipment to see where and how your packaging is failing. This allows us to create customized solutions based on scientific data, virtually eliminating shipping damage and reducing overall packaging costs.

ISTA Certified Testing
The Packaging Solution Center is an ISTA Certified Testing Facility.

We offer Offering Series 1, ISTA 2C, and Series 3 Tests. We test pack methods against ISTA hazard elements for single parcel and unit load shipments. Our comprehensive testing options allow us to set packaging standards and then certify them through the full path of the supply chain.

Get the official industry backing you need to certify your testing and the efficacy of our provided solutions.
Mushroom Packaging by Ecovative

Mushroom Packaging by Ecovative

Mushroom® Packaging from Ecovative is made with two simple ingredients - hemp hurd agricultural matter and mycelium, the roots of mushrooms. This product is a high-performing sustainable packaging solution. It offers excellent product protection during shipping and then breaks down into compost at the end of its lifecycle. It uses minimal resources to make and contains zero man-made chemicals. This is the ideal nature-made and Earth-friendly alternative to foam packaging.

Mushroom Packaging is literally grown, not manufactured. They use a custom design process to create molds for your exact product that needs protecting. Compared to foam which does not break down, Mushroom Packaging is home-compostable in 45 days. It is a competitive solution for custom molded products and is actually a nutrient for the earth, not a pollutant.

Mushroom Packaging is a separate branch of Ecovative, the company that developed the MycoComposite™ technology and that continues to research and develop novel mycelium technologies.

Mushroom Packaging has been identified as a New Earth Approved custom capability. It meets all the required criteria and we believe this is an exciting development in sustainable protective packaging. Since each mold is custom-made, we can help connect you with the engineers at Mushroom Packaging to facilitiate the design process.
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