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Do you know how packaging machinery works?
Posted by Phil
on November 03, 2005 at 12:39:27:
If you're bottling 1,000 or less bottles of perfume, as we sometimes do, hand work will surfice. But when you need to bottle 20,000 or more bottles, packaging equipment is required.
Have you ever seen packaging machinery in action?
For the package designer, to not understand packaging machinery is like a home "designer" who doesn't understand construction and contractors. If you've never done it before, it's worth going to a packaging trade show and seeing how amazingly automated a modern assembly line can be.
I came across an article on the packworld.com website (www.packworld.com/cds_search.html?rec_id=20239&eclip=yes) by John R. Henry bemoaning the fact that the few colleges that offer courses in packaging fail to coordinate those courses with the machinery that is USED in packaging.
Give you an example of why this is important.
Say you want to bottle your own perfume -- and you find a nice bottle with a 15/200 neck (or "finish") and another with a 15mm neck (or "finish"). Remember, you are going to bottle this perfume yourself.
You like prefer the bottle with the 15mm neck -- 15mm CRIMP neck, to be exact -- but should you order it?
If you do, how are you going to attach a fine mist spray pump? You'll need a crimp machine. Want to buy one? The cost, for a hand operated crimp machine is about $2,500 ... if you can find one for sale. If you really need a crimp machine, you'll have to contract out your work ... to a company that owns a crimp machine (and not all packaging companies do ... not for fine mist spray pump crimping anyway.)
Now this is just a simple example. Applying labels is also commonly done by (a very simple!) machine and, when you use the machine, you'll get the labels on straight and properly aligned. Doing this work by hand isn't difficult but you'll have to build yourself some sort of template so that you get consistency when you do your labeling.
Understanding packaging and what can be done easily and inexpensively (and what is difficult and expansive!) can mean the difference between designing a smart, practical perfume package and a clunker that will cost so much to product that you simply abandon it.
Years ago, before I understood anything about printing, I designed a magazine cover for a run of 1,000 copies that would have cost TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS to print! What did I know? At the time, nothing! But I'll never forget the look on the printers face when I showed him my (anticipated) $35 job ... and, though I didn't have a mirror handy, I must have made quite a face too.
Designing is only the first step. Production is the "final exam." Knowing your production equipment will put you at the top of the class.
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