How can bulk bag users reduce shipping costs?
The bulk density of your product determines the opportunity for shipping cost savings.
If your product is heavy enough to weigh-out a shipping container/trailer then, as we have seen in the last two posts, replacing wood pallets with a plastic channel replacement system or simply eliminating bottom support altogether can significantly reduce shipping costs. Reducing the weight of packaging per shipment means you can replace the weight reduction with product thereby shipping out more product per container and reducing shipping cost per pound.
However, if your product's bulk density is such that you can't weigh-out a container/trailer there is an additional step you can take to minimize shipping cost.
Bulk Bag Densification Increases Payload
Light products such as wood flour, fluff carbon black, fumed silica and the like react favorably to certain types of densification. This means that the payload of a given size bulk bag can be increased. Increasing the bulk bag payload increases the amount of product that be shipped per container thereby reducing shipping cost per pound.
Low bulk density bulk solids tend to trap air between their particles. Depending on the particle shape it can be very difficult to remove the air while the bulk bag is being filled. Bulk bag filler densification systems are designed to remove the trapped air thereby densifying the product.
Some densification systems are more effective than others. Carefully matching the method of densification with the product characteristics can result in a significant improvement in packed bulk density thereby increasing payload.
Bulk Bag Densification Reduces Shipping Cost
As a starting point it is reasonable to assume that a densification system capable of maximum compaction should be able to increase payload weight by a minimum of 10%.
Control and Metering's experience is that payload increases of 20-30% are often achievable and in some cases as much as 40%+ more weight can put in a bulk bag that has been previously filled without densification or with ineffective densification systems.
