Packaging Materials Defined
Packaging materials is a very large, broad market. It encompasses enclosures and also what is going to be holding the product. Plas-Ties are part of the enclosure part of it. This includes tapes, twist tie materials, Ziploc enclosures, and Kwik Lok.
It’s a whole wide variety, cellophane, vacuum package materials. So this is a whole wide variety of products. And our little niche is in the twist tie market and the cable tie market. It’s quite exciting to go to these trade shows and see how technology is growing so much in packaging. We go to Pack West Expo, Pack Expo in Chicago. Every year we’re at these shows and to see the market grow every year. We’re there based on automation, computers that join and apply the product and the enclosures themselves. It’s quite incredible. For Plas-Ties to be a part of that is even more exciting.
Fully Automated Machines for Packaging Materials
We’re moving our machines from being a semi-auto to a fully automated machine to do twist tie enclosures. This keeps us relevant in the packaging industry. This means that we have to stay with the current trends. This includes going from only a hand tie to a semi-auto machine to an automated large system. We have seen during this time, some of these trends go up and down. The twist tie that we saw a couple of years ago is a little different than it is now. We have a lot more options with it. That includes a nonmetal twist tie. We have print abilities on the twist tie. We have options to tie heavy, heavy gauge packaging materials. We’re able to tie bundles with a high tinsel strength with the twist tie.
Ease of Use for Consumers
So it allows you to, for the customer to have easiness or ease of actually undoing the product. Being a consumer myself, nothing frustrates me more than having a package that I have to get scissors. Or I have to be able to break into it somehow. And with a twist tie, it’s very easy. You’re able to undo it real fast and actually reuse it if you wanted to. When you’re buying a machine and packaging for your company, you want to look at the idea of the effectiveness of it. For speed and accuracy, the consumer end of it gets lost a lot.
So the consumer end of the packaging is important about the whole idea of packaging. You got to get your product safe from manufacturing to the retail store or to where the customer will open it. But during that time, when the customer actually has hands on it is when the tangibles happen. That’s when the experience of the product’s going to occur. Say you have it where it’s proper and effective packaging material. Then the customer should be able to open it up with ease. It’s going to make that initial experience for your product that much better.
That’s what we’ve seen so far in say bread bags. You know you have bread bags that have the twist tie on it and you can open it and close it back up. There are bread bags that have the Kwik Lok fastener. You can take it back off and put it back on. Both have their different functions. Both have their different uses. As a twist tie company, we think that it’s much more consumer friendly that they use the same tie throughout the lifetime of that individual product.
Plas-Ties Loaner Machine Program
The most important part about selecting a machine that will secure your packaging materials is to have the support to get it back up and running. So when a machine does go down, are you able to get parts fast? Are you able to get support to have it repaired in a timely manner? There’s something more specific when you have a machine that’s out for the long term.
Can you have a replacement machine in there to do the job while your main machine is getting repaired? With Plas-Ties we offer a loaner program. If you have to have your machine sent in to us for repair, we will send you a machine out to your location. You can use it the whole time while your machine’s getting repaired. Then when you receive your machine back, it’s simple to put the machine back in the box and send it back to us. You never lose production time.
