The Framers Forum

Hi everyone,

I'm soon to start selling my work which I'm hoping to place into deep box frames with glass fronts. My main issue is finding the most appropriate packaging to box my frames up. Until I find themost suitable method I can't price the frames up for sale. Can anyone advise the most suitable packaging for a frame with glass that is 260mmx260mmx40mm. I'm using 2 styles of frame with the other being 10mm shorter in length/width. Ideally I'm looking for the most cost effective method and that doesn't take forever to package.

When previously selling a couple of frames of a similar size, I have used a double sided cardboard box and 2 x 25mm polystyrene foam sheets sandwiched either side of the frame. Due to the foam being high density the cost of each large foam sheet was £3.50, and I managed to get 2 squares cut out of this to place either side of the frame. Just wondered if there was anything more suitable and cheaper to use. I understand with it including glass it needs a far more scure and protective method of packaging so my question is would foam be better than say using bubble wrap. I'd like to avoid to much plastic within my packaging if possible.

Buy the large single sheets of double thickness corrugated cardboard first and make your own boxes. Then when you have some volume sales, have the boxes made.
Go to a builders supplies yard and buy their 25mm insulation polystyrene board - much cheaper.

Blue foam corner protectors in lengths, will suspend the frame away from the box edges. I like to fix a piece of mdf over the front of the frame to protect the glass from direct impact. But glass can also break from the impact against the inside of the frame. I've been advised to use a glass sanding pad all around the glass edges to lessen this.

I post similar size frames, some of which have been sent international as far as Australia. Admittedly mine aren't box frames.

Place a sheet of corrugated cardboard or artback cut to the same size as the frame on the front and the back.

Wrap the sandwiched frame in bubble wrap.

Take some double corrugated cardboard and score it to create a sleeve. Leave the ends a little over long and stuff some additional packaging in, screwed up paper or bubble wrap etc.

Wrap entire ensemble in brown paper (mount board packaging is an environmentally friendly re use of materials) with plenty of FRAGILE tape.

That reached Australia no bother, and I don't even bother with the cardboard sleeve for UK deliveries. Not had one arrive broken yet.

Abi
How do you get on with wooden frames entering Australia, I thought they distroy them at customs, as they do not like wooden products entering thier country

I've not had a problem so far, I write picture frame on the label, so I'm not pulling the wool over anybody's eyes.
Mine are quite small, I think the last one was approx 320 x 160mm so maybe they slip under the radar due to that.

How well do box frames travel when sent by post? I've always wondered, because I know that shock waves travel through glass quite well from an engineering standpoint and if the edges of the glass are not perfectly smooth, the stresses tend to concentrate at a point where the outer surface has a defect. It's something that you learn as an engineer. Calculating how much stress at a particular point, where there is a defect, is needed to cause a fracture is not necessarily all that predictable, but anything that help to absorb some of the energy along the way can definitely help reduce the risk of damage. Using the packaging to absorb some of the g-force and therefore minimise the g-force the packaged item is subjected to is the secret to ensuring that things arrive in good shape.

Different packaging materials absorb different frequency better, or worse that other packaging materials. In industry it is common to use a combination of different materials to spread the range of frequencies that the packaging will be able to absorb and suppress. Trapped air packaging products preform differently to non-trapped air packaging. Bubble wrap does not always get used in properly engineered packaging because it does not always resist damage by taking the damage it's self instead of whats inside the packaging. Corrigated cardboard can sustain crush damage instead of transmitting the damage to a different layer within the packaging, but beyond a certain level the crush damage to the corrigated cardboard loses some of the corrigated cardbord''s protective properties to a second bout of crush damage.

The general rule is use mixed packaging materials to help protect from a full range of impact, crush and vibration risks.