UFP press release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UFP's Molded Pulp Releases Business and Design Overview

BUSINESS AND DESIGN OVERVIEW

UFP Technologies' molded fiber packaging division manufactures interior protective packaging by molding recycled newspapers. The company was founded in 1990 in Portland, Maine and has grown into the dominant player in the custom molded pulp industry in North America. Molded Fiber's manufacturing facility is located in Clinton, IA. The primary markets that UFP molded fiber serves include consumer electronics, computer peripherals, medical, health and beauty, consumer/industrial products and home goods packaging (such as custom designed molded pulp trays for faucet parts, clamshells for health and beauty goods and end caps for printers).

UFP molded fiber is a vertically integrated company. In-house services include product design, tooling design, tool manufacturing, and product manufacturing. UFP molded fiber even designs and builds its own manufacturing equipment. The only thing UFP molded fiber does not manufacture itself is the paper that is used in its molding process.

INDUSTRY BACKGROUND

The manufacturing process of molded fiber has existed for about 70 years. Initially, it was only available in large volume, commodity type products such as egg carton, fruit trays and drink cup holders. These volumes range in the tens of millions and higher. Only in the last 12 years has it been available in “small volume” custom form. UFP's molded pulp division was the first company in North America to offer such custom capabilities.

The manufacturing process is conceptually the same for custom molded fiber / molded pulp as it is for high volume egg cartons and drink cup holders. Both processes use the “gang run” concept, where a number of molds are mounted on a large platen and run in conjunction with one another. The difference is that custom molded pulp typically has a number of different molds (different customer tooling) on a platen at once and a typical production run might last for a week or more. High volume molded pulp typically "tools up" an entire platen with the same mold design and a typical job might run for months at a time.

Initially custom molded pulp had difficulty in getting a number of dissimilar molds to run with one another, since each mold needed different amounts of vacuum, paper, and drying time. In the early days of molded fiber, the company needed to overcome a steep learning curve to master the key differences between making custom molded pulp and manufacture of high volume commodity molded pulp. The major difference was that in order to make custom product, the process had to be re-engineered so it was “flexible” enough to meet the needs of the custom packaging market.

DESIGN

UFP has focused on protective molded pulp packaging as its core business and has done thousands of different designs for a myriad of different products. No other molded fiber company in the US has as much experience with molded pulp design. Although some molded fiber companies and academics would like to believe that a set of cushion curves can be developed to predict performance in drop tests, our experience tells us that even subtle changes in structure, geometry and shape of cushioning area can dramatically alter performance. Therefore, the best way to predict how a molded pulp design will perform comes from the experience of having done many designs. Over the years, UFP molded fiber engineers have discovered the geometries that work well and those that do not.

UFP molded fiber engineers collectively have almost 30 years of industry experience in product development and design.

One of the constraints faced in designing with molded pulp is the removal of the part from the tool. Because wet fiber tends to imbed itself in the screen on the mold, a draft angle of about 5 to 7 degrees is required to allow the fiber to slide off the tool when the delivery head grabs it. Another concern with structural fiber is how it responds when it is wet. Upon delivery from tool to oven belt, a molded fiber part may have 70% to 80% moisture content.

With all this extra water weight, if a molded pulp article is not structurally sound, it can collapse before it is dry. If this happens, the part will emerge from the oven severely warped or disfigured. Some structure in a design is created not for product protection, but for the sole purpose of preventing the part from caving in under the weight of the water.

In a typical design scenario, UFP molded fiber will use pre-existing 3D solids, CAD drawings of the product to be packaged, or generate drawings of the product and design the fiber around the item. Drawings will primarily be created in 3D to illustrate concepts. They can be done in 2D if necessary. UFP molded fiber can work with SolidWorks, Parasolid, Step, Iges, and Acis files among others. Once a design is done, a “rapid prototype” can be created. Flat molded fiber material is cut and pasted together to form a model of the article being proposed. This model illustrates the design exactly and can be used to demonstrate a concept for a customer. It is not a drop testable sample, but is accurate to +/- .03”, so it can serve to confirm proper fit. The “rapid prototype” is very useful when a hands on presentation is required, versus a viewable computerized 3-D presentation.

Tooling and manufacturing will be discussed in more detail in upcoming articles.

For more information on UFP's molded pulp packaging, please visit www.moldedfiber.com or www.ufpt.com/moldedfiber.asp.

UFP's customer service department is also available at 563-242-2444 or by email at info@ufpt.com.

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