Edge protection profiles for securing pallets
3min read
26/02/2019
If you say about someone that he or she has edges and corners, this is usually meant in an appreciative way. He or she has his or her own convictions, which he or she stands up for – and, if necessary, takes offence. Thomas Tomkos, one of Germany’s leading HR consultants (Russell Reynolds Associates), even recommends in an interview with Der Spiegel to develop and cultivate edges and corners in order to be better respected on the job. Of course, in direct confrontation with people who think differently, it can happen that you “mess up” your edges a little.
But under no circumstances should this happen to your products! In shipping and transport, it is the corners and edges that often suffer the most. Therefore, there are a variety of products that ensure that your product arrives at the recipient’s without any defects and that its corners and edges really come into their own.
The right choice depends largely on your product.
Protective profiles to secure the goods on the pallet
Edge protection profiles play a particularly important role in securing and stabilising a pallet. Used correctly, they help to reduce the use of stretch film or even make it superfluous.
Protective profiles to secure the products in the carton
Do you have a compact product such as a loudspeaker to protect? Here, protective corners are best suited to protect the corner as well as the three edges that meet.Do you need to protect a flat product such as a picture frame? Then you should use the triangular edge protectors that protect your product on all four sides. If you want to protect not “only” the corners, but entire edges, the following applies:
- For compact products, you need edge protection in an L-profile, i.e. the edge protection is placed on the edge (L-profiles do not adhere to the product on their own, they have to be fixed with the outer packaging or you choose an L-profile with adhesive strips!).
- For flat edges, such as a table edge, edge protection in a so-called U-profile is recommended. The U-profiles have a kind of “basic tension”, which is why they virtually “cling” to your product. Further fixing is therefore no longer necessary.
There are 2 different materials to choose from for all protection variants:
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Protection made of paper or cardboard
Paper or cardboard solutions are the most environmentally friendly, but on average a little more expensive than polystyrene or foam. Take, for example, the corrugated cardboard roll as a catgut protector.
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Foam protection
Foam has a soft surface and is a little flexible in shape. Foam protection therefore absorbs impacts “softly” and has another advantage: because the material is flexible, it is well suited for so-called U- and O-profiles, which, for example, protect round poles with sensitive surfaces from scratches.
Edge protection for “misshapen” products
O-profiles can be used to protect round objects with sensitive surfaces, such as bicycle frames or table legs.
The“U” cardboard edge protectors can also be used to cushion round edges (for example, for the proverbial “round table”). The profiles, each 120cm long, are simply bent around the edge and fixed to the product by the high leg tension – foam would spring back into its original, straight shape here!
