Monoflo International has launched a new Injection Molded 48” x 45” Nestable Pallet (NP 4845-06 IM). Manufactured to the AIAG footprint, our new Injection Molded 48” x 45” Nestable Pallet is a cost-effective alternative to our Nestable Structural Foam 48” x 45” Pallet, offering similar strength capabilities with greater impact resistance. The new NP4845-06 IM is built for durability in all Automotive and Manufacturing environments. Using a proprietary material blend that is specifically formulated to deliver superior performance and extended product life.
The pallet has four (4) ergonomic handles strategically designed to optimize comfort during manual stacking and de-stacking. All nine legs are equipped with impact ribbing to absorb side-force impact, minimizing damage, and delivering durability. Dedicated areas at each corner and above the center leg can accommodate hot stamping, cross-dock labeling, or RFID tags.
This pallet is purposefully designed to accommodate the AIAG family of handheld containers and is compatible to the structural foam pallet design. It has been engineered to use less material without compromising its robust strength and high-performance standards and, since it contains no metal, it can be easily recycled at the end of its useful life.
For more information on this Nestable Pallet, call 540-771-3077 or complete a contact form to speak with a sales team member.
About Monoflo International, Inc. Monoflo International, Inc. is a premier manufacturer of superior quality injection molded plastic products including bulk, foldable and food containers and pallets, bakery trays and dollies. Monoflo leverages its decades of experience to provide innovative and cost-effective reusable packaging solutions to the general merchandise and food distribution, automotive and manufacturing, and specialty custom retail industries.
Plastic collapsible bulk containers are used for keeping goods safe and protected during transit and organized and clean when stored. They can accommodate large quantities of product and can be collapsed when not in use, saving storage space and shipping costs.
Benefits of Plastic Bulk Containers
Plastic bulk containers offer many benefits to their users:
Reusable & Repairable
Plastic bulk containers are reusable and have a long lifespan making them extremely cost-effective. They are also easily repairable, so if a piece does break, the container can be repaired quickly in the field and put back into use without causing disruption to productivity.
Plastic Bulk Containers are Recyclable
Once a plastic bulk container reaches the end of its useful life, it can be easily recycled, and the material can be used to make new products. Plastic bulk containers can also be manufactured using recycled material. And since the plastic they’re manufactured with is reusable, it eliminates the waste of single-use packaging, contributing to a more sustainable packaging system.
Reduced Freight Costs
A significant benefit of a collapsible bulk container is reduced freight costs. They can be efficiently folded when empty and are lightweight compared to other containers on the market. This delivers back-haul efficiency, reduces your carbon footprint, and conserves valuable warehouse space when not in use.
Strength & Durability
Plastic bulk containers are incredibly durable and strong. Designed to withstand the rigors of a challenging supply chain, plastic bulk containers reliably protect the items they contain, offering superior product protection.
Why Choose High-Pressure Injection Molded Plastic Bulk Containers?
Different materials and molding processes are used to manufacture plastic bulk containers.
High-pressure injection molded bulk containers are among the top-performing containers in the industry.
Better Strength-to-Weight Ratios
Injection Molded Bulk Containers offer the best strength-to-weight ratios, demonstrated through in-depth comparative tests. High-pressure injection molded bulk containers continue to outperform products made through other processes. Their light weight also makes them more user-friendly than other bulk bins, as an individual person can erect or collapse the container quickly and without issue.
Significantly Less Breakage Than Structural Foam Containers
High-pressure injection molded bulk containers are more durable than other plastic containers on the market. They experience significantly less breakage than containers made of structural foam, another commonly used material in bulk container manufacturing.
Structural foam products contain large air pockets, creating brittle areas that diminish the structural integrity of the product. In contrast, high-pressure injection molded products are 100% plastic and contain no air pockets. This eliminates the risk of weak or brittle areas, providing better protection to the contents within the bulk box and delivering a longer product life.
Easily Repairable
Plastic bulk containers are also designed to be easily repairable in the field. For example, imagine a bin’s sidewall is damaged after impact by a careless forklift driver. That sidewall can be swapped out in a matter of minutes. The bulk container is quickly returned to service rather than decommissioning the entire bin for isolated damage.
Why Monoflo for Bulk Collapsible Containers
A Leader in the Industry
Monoflo was one of the first manufacturers in the United States to make a bulk container using high-pressure injection molding, and we have over one million bulk containers made and in service today. Our bulk containers set the industry standard, delivering the highest strength-to-weight ratios in the industry.
Consistency & Quality
Cutting-edge automation and high-speed robotics are an integral part of our manufacturing, allowing us to maintain the highest possible repeatable quality and consistency. Technology helps deliver quality products and enables us to guarantee reliable repeatability so the first product in the run is exactly the same as the last.
Low-Cost
Monoflo continues to make significant investment in technology. Our manufacturing cells combine the most advanced high-speed robotics, energy efficient molding machines, and high-end tooling to enable us to decrease cycle times while maintaining the highest quality standards. The result is a perfect bulk container at the lowest cost.
Simply put, Monoflo bulk containers are designed to perform, and they deliver on that promise.
Monoflo’s product experts have decades of experience and can help you find the right solution to meet your performance needs. We have a wide variety of sizes and customization options, including tracking technology like RFID and Bluetooth. Get in touch with our team today for more information or to check out our bulk container product offerings.
How Monoflo International redesigned the Bulk Container to offer a better product with significant cost savings to the automotive and manufacturing industry.
Challenge: Design a more durable Bulk Container and drive down costs.
Monoflo International, Inc. is a premier manufacturer of superior quality injection molded plastic products and one of the first transport packaging manufacturer in the United States to make a bulk container using high-pressure injection molding. Monoflo believed that the high-pressure injection molded product line offered its customers better strength, durability, and price. Though it was outperforming the competition, Monoflo knew its first generation “G1” bulk box had room for improvement in three main areas:
» Packout Efficiency
Companies in the durable goods manufacturing industry work with a variety of vendors and suppliers, so members in that supply chain follow recommendations and best practices set by the AIAG (Automotive Industry Action Group) to standardize processes and materials, like bulk container footprints. The AIAG determined that the optimum bulk container size to accommodate the needs of the automotive industry is a 48”x45”footprint. However, when loaded on a 53’ trailer, the standard bulk container footprint could leave over 290 cubic feet of unutilized space.
» Durability
The supply chain can be unforgiving. Regardless of the manufacturer, customers across the industry experienced breakage of the container’s wall hinges as a result of wear and tear and abuse. Broken containers are costly to continually replace, but if left in use, can leave the product they carry vulnerable to damages.
» Manufacturing Efficiency
Resources are finite. Increased inputs of time, energy, labor, and raw materials can collectively drive up production costs. In order to keep costs low and promote sustainability, Monoflo wanted to drive out manufacturing inefficiencies.
Solution: Monoflo’s redesigned “G2” bulk box.
Monoflo set out to reengineer its bulk box design and manufacturing process to better use the real estate in a 53’ trailer packout, improve the durability of the bulk box to withstand the rigors of the supply chain, and increase manufacturing efficiency to reduce costs.
Monoflo understood it was important that the new design maintain the same inside dimensions to be able to accommodate the same dunnage and products without disruption to current users, and needed to be fully compatible with the other containers used in the durable goods manufacturing industry. Through careful calculation and modeling, Monoflo engineers identified a way to move from a 48” x 45” external footprint to a 48” x 44.5” external footprint without impacting the dimensions inside the container or the container’s strength. The team strategically positioned the feet of the second-generation base to ensure the new model would stack with the legacy models. These changes enabled customers to fit two additional container stacks in a 53’ trailer packout.
The redesign also included modifications to improve the strength and durability of the bulk box, and offered a solution to the industry-wide hinge breakage problem. Monoflo engineers created a redesigned “Flex Hinge” without fiberglass or metal for easier assembly and disassembly, and repositioned them towards the center of the sidewall to protect from wear and tear and abuse. This also made the unit more easily repairable, providing customers the option to repair instead of replace damaged containers. The team also established an independent “T-Slot” connection between the bottom and the sidewall, offering a more precise alignment when assembled, and a box-style “Carcass Joint” to better absorb and resist impact. Lastly, using Finite Element Analysis (FEA), Monoflo implemented a “U-Channel” ribbing design down the sidewall load lines to improve both vertical and horizontal deflections and optimize stacking capacity.
Monoflo performed a comprehensive evaluation of the machines it was using to manufacture bulk containers. Deciding it was time for an upgrade, the company made a significant, multi-million dollar investment and hand selected only the best-in-class robotics and machinery to fully automate the manufacturing process of the newly designed “G2” bulk container.
Results:
» Decreasing the external footprint of the container by 1⁄2 inch meant that 252 units could now ship in a single truck, an increase of 20% from the previous capacity of 234 units. For businesses that move thousands of truckloads of product across the country each year, this translated into significant cost savings. Customers not only pay a lower per-unit price on their initial order, but are also able to transport more product with each truckload.
» The improved“G2”Bulk Container with the new “Flex Hinge,” “T-Slot,” and“Carcass Joint” features has the highest strength-to-weight ratio in the industry as well as decreased reports of broken hinges. The “U-channel” ribbing offers improved load distribution, translating into the highest overall load stacking capacity and increased wall rigidity, both when assembled and disassembled. These strategic design optimizations enabled Monoflo to create a stronger, more durable container with improved load distribution while reducing the overall product weight by 20%, meaning less raw materials consumed and lower freight costs throughout the life of the product.
» Monoflo’s technology investment completely automated the bulk box manufacturing process, decreasing cycle times by nearly 6% and creating a manufacturing cell cost savings that Monoflo was able to pass on to customers. The upgraded technology also includes a vision verification system to inspect minute details at critical stages of production, eliminating the risk of misassembled product and guaranteeing consistent, repeatable quality.
Every factor of the redesign, from the increased packout count, to the improved durability and repairability, and the ongoing freight cost savings contributes to a lower total cost of ownership to customers. The new G2 Bulk Container offers a better quality, more durable container for a lower upfront price and freight savings for the life of the product.