Alternative To Wood As Packaging Material

Challenge Details

Wooden donnage (dimensions 75mm x 75mm x 1075mm) are used in packing and stacking of Finished Goods (FG) such as Steel sheets and coils. Each year about 80,000 units of donnage are used for this purpose. Apart from high cost of wood, the quality of wood also poses a concern leading to safety issues. Use of wood for such purposes is also environmentally unfriendly. Wooden donnage also faces a problem of infestation and foreign material inclusion. We are therefore, looking for alternative materials that will replace wood in such applications.

Current Scenario:

HDPE (High Density Polyurethane ) bags filled with rice-husk, has been tried Though being a good replacement it has its own issues of like availability of rice-husk and infestation especially by rodents. Recycled plastic donnage also was tried, but they are also unfeasible owing to their high cost.          

Each wood donnage can take a load of 1 Tonne. They maintain their integrity for at least 20 uses, i.e. supporting  loads  in situations as below;

1.    Stationary load

2.    In motion load i.e when it is transported from one location to another. A trip can be as long as 3 -4 days.

3.    While the  material is being loaded and unloaded. In this situation the donnage are subjected to higher shocks and impacts. The alternative material should meet these specifications. 

Success Criteria: The solution must meet the following requirements:

•    Cost of the material should be comparable to Rs. 85 per unit 

•    The material should be readily available in India.

•    Its weight should be comparable to wooden donnage.

•    Like wood it should absorb shocks & impact and should not create any scratch any of the surfaces, it may come in contact with.

•    The material should be easy to repair. i.e it should be easy to join if it breaks and if material chips and/or cracks. It should be easy to repair using commercially available adhesives or other means of joining that are readily available.