Pack Softly and Still Carry a Big Load

Softbox Systems (Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom) is helping pharmaceutical companies ship temperature-sensitive products via air transport using recyclable materials. The company recently worked with Laminations (Appleton, WI) to launch a system for the United States.

Softbox Systems’s first product, the oval-shaped Softbox for shipping clinical trial drugs, employed low-density polyethylene (LDPE) instead of oft-used Styrofoam and polyurethane. Founder Edwin Tattam and his company have since developed the Softbox Silverpod range of temperature-control air cargo containers designed for shipping ambient, chilled, and frozen products. The Silverpod systems are designed to keep product within critical parameters while maximizing unit load devices widely used by airlines for shipping cargo.

The panels and VBoard employed in this single-use LD7 half system are recyclable, reports Softbox.

The latest Silverpod systems use extruded polystyrene (XPS) panels and VBoard by Laminations to create a highly insulated packaging system that can control temperatures during air shipments through a broad range of environments and temperatures.

“For the insulation panels, we use XPS because it is very widely available around the world,” says Richard Jones, managing director of Softbox Systems. “We need to be able to supply these systems from regionally available materials in the United States, Europe, and Asia Pacific. We chose this material because of its global availability and also because it has a very high insulation capability.”

The insulation panels are routed to allow their edges to rebate with each other. Using very strong adhesive, lengths of Laminations VBoard with a 0.20-in. caliper and legs of 3 × 3 in. are fixed to the panels, leaving a gap that is just wide enough to allow the panels to slide together.

VBoard consists of layers of laminated paperboard formed into rigid right angles. Its thickness depends upon the number of layers employed. VBoard has been used to increase the stacking strength of corrugated boxes and to extend their lifecycles for potential reuse. VBoard users have been able to downsize the thickness of corrugated materials as part of source-reduction programs.

Tattam found Laminations when living in Bend, OR, in 2007 to 2008 and designing the new Silverpod system. Familiar with laminated paperboard edge protection products in the United Kingdom, Tattam found Laminations on the Internet.  VBoard not only protects the edges and creates an airtight seal where the insulation panels join, but it also delivers other advantages. “One of the things we like about the VBoard is that it provides very strong outer edges that enable us to strap the whole system horizontally and vertically so it is very, very solid,” said Jones.

The panels and the VBoard also are 100% recyclable. “Like many of our customers, Softbox Systems moves in an industry that is increasingly conscious of environmental considerations in its packaging components,” says Laminations account manager Greg Seidel, who services the Softbox Systems account. “The use of VBoard keeps the entire system recyclable and provides maximum support and stability while helping to achieve source reduction in packaging materials.”

Softbox Systems also makes use of the printing features available with Laminations to promote its company name and Web site,
www.softboxsystems.com, on all Silverpod systems.

Four of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies are already either using Softbox Systems’s products or are in active trials with the products, Jones says.

“Our large pharmaceutical company clients give us ambient-temperature profiles that simulate real-world conditions experienced on their shipping lanes. We have environmental testing chambers capable of taking a full Silverpod LD7 system that can simulate ambient temperatures from –40˚C up to 60˚C,” Jones says. “We build the Silverpod system inside our test chamber, use the client’s product or dummy product to simulate the thermal mass of the product, and test it. The client gets a validation report that shows how the system performed in maintaining product temperature within a specified range under controlled conditions.”
Softbox Systems need to control the temperatures for ambient products, which must be kept between 15°C and 25°C, chilled products that must be kept between  2°C and 8°C, and frozen products that must be kept below –20°C for up to 120 hours in its Silverpod systems.

 “When we’re shipping product, we have to maintain the correct temperature range to make sure it arrives in perfect condition,” says Jones. “Millions of dollars are at stake.”

Validation testing normally uses a 72- to 120-hour window. “If you’re taking product from a client’s warehouse where it has been packed in cold store to somewhere else in the world, even if you allow a 24-hour delay in customs when it arrives at the destination airport, you can usually achieve a 72-hour window,” Jones says. “We’ve tested up to 96 hours and in some cases up to 120 hours. But a lot depends on the extreme temperatures the Silverpod is exposed to during shipping.”

Softbox Systems must also validate its systems for weather conditions at different times of the year. “Chicago, for instance, is hot in the summer and very cold in the winter,” said Jones. “We must therefore validate these systems to extreme hot and cold temperatures that cover every possible eventuality they may face to prove their capability to maintain correct product temperature.”

The original Softbox temperature control packaging system, rather than using Styrofoam and polyurethane insulation, was made from low-density polyethylene (LDPE). Rather than being a molded box, it was constructed with wound layers of foam, making it flexible and durable and capable of withstanding the rigors of courier handling.

The company then introduced its Silverbox and Pallet Shipper systems. These made use of specially developed LDPE silver technical foam that had an additive that significantly improved insulation performance. The Silverbox range was designed specifically for international shipment of highly sensitive and valuable clinical trial drugs. Silverbox is now used by many of the world’s leading pharmaceutical and clinical research companies who rely on the performance of these systems to ensure the efficacy of their clinical trial drugs.

Pallet Shippers have been equally successful. With both systems now manufactured in the United Kingdom, United States, and Asia Pacific, Softbox Systems has the capability to provide global solutions delivered locally.

In 2006 Softbox then developed the Silverpod systems after requests from pharmaceutical customers to develop systems for use with aircraft unit load devices. These systems used a unique combination of high- and low-density laminated layers of LDPE silver technical foam to create extremely robust insulation panels that would provide the durability needed for multiple use.

“Although these multiuse Silverpod systems proved highly effective,” Jones says, “we thought the biggest market for us would be to develop a range of single-use systems based on the same concept and objectives. These would provide our customers with the first real cost-effective alternative to using active air cargo containers.” The passive systems utilize insulation and cool packs to surround the product and control temperature.

“When we developed our Silverpods, we wanted to go head to head with active systems,” he adds. “We were able to come up with a system that is significantly cheaper.”

“While the product’s name stipulates single use, a lot of our customers are finding ways to reuse them,” says Jones. “One pharmaceutical company uses them to ship from the United States to the United Kingdom and then reuse them to ship to more than 100 destinations around the world. Then they’ll flat pack the system and send it back in a sea container to the United Kingdom. A lot of customers want a system that’s robust enough to handle two or three or maybe even a half-dozen uses. They’re all looking at these green issues to try to get reusability out of it. The VBoard works well with that because it is pretty much indestructible.” ■