Avoid These 4 Mistakes! Prevent Damage to Your Air Dunnage Bags
Posted on January 30, 2014 by Erik Burden
Air dunnage bags are applied as a preventative measure, ensuring your products/shipments arrive to their destination unscathed and safe. Due to the bags’ strength and resilience, many believe they cannot be harmed or compromised.
Unfortunately, this leads to the dunnage bags being applied and handled incorrectly, leading to potential failure. Synthetic airbags are comprised of a polyethylene woven outer shell and an interior plastic air bladder.
In today’s blog, I will go over some of the errors, misconceptions, and habits occurring in the field that contribute to airbag damage. Armed with this knowledge, you’ll be able to get the most from your dunnage bags.
No product is 100% guaranteed never to fail, but about 99% of the failure we see is caused by exterior outer fabric abrasion. Exterior abrasion is essentially a stretch or tear caused by an outside force acting on the bag, often creating an escape for the trapped air. Since the outer shell is woven and not a solid piece this causes the bags to deflate, sometimes at a rate not noticeable over a few minutes.
4 Ways to Avoid Exterior Abrasion Damage to Your Air Dunnage Bags
- Keep bags in their box until they are needed.
- Make sure bags are never left unattended or on the ground where lift trucks could run them over.
- Ensure there are no nails, splinters, or sharp edges making contact with the dunnage bags.
- If needed, use honeycomb dunnage products or corrugated sheets to buffer the bags from sharp edges. This will ensure the bags maintain air pressure and your product arrives safely.
Avoid these four simple mistakes and your dunnage bags will perform as intended, ensuring your shipments arrive safely and damage-free!
Lastly, Complete Packaging Systems offers comprehensive training throughout North America for customers purchasing our products. We will help you to stay compliant within the Association of American Railroads (AAR), rail carriers, and other governing bodies. You will become more efficient and learn how to get the most out of your cargo securement products. (Click here to contact us for further details on our training programs.)
>> For more information about our Cyclone™ dunnage bags or to order products, please contact us today.
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