Question How to ship Foam-cor?

[JgS]

What would be the best way to ship posters mounted on 3/16" foam-cor? I need to ship 2 per box and they are 24"x36" in size. My main concern is the posters getting bent or crushed during shipping.

 

[Billct2]

There are lots of ways, most involve some type of bubble or foam wrap and/or cardboard, scrap foamcore or coro protection. If you do a lot you can probably buy some boxes and sleeves meant for just that purpose.
My best suggestion is to not use foamcore in the future, use PVC instead. I stopped using foamcore and only use PVC now, for the difference in cost for the average poster it's worth it. I just tell the client that they won't have to worry and denting or crushed corners and they appreciate the upsell.

 

[ams]

Put do not bend, do not drop, do not break, do not get wet, caution and do not tear labels and then cross your fingers and hope for the best.

 

[Gino]

Cut some masonite slightly bigger and tape the livin' sh!t out of it, but put some spacers around, so nothing gets crushed..... and insure it heavily.

The comment about not using foamboard in the future...... your best piece of advise for the decade. That sh!t is pure junk and worthless. Even if it gets there without any damage, they'll wreck it, taking it outta the box and blame you.

 

[JgS]

I wish pvc was an option but I have to do 100 of these posters and until I figure out how to fix my Excalibur I’m cutting these down by hand.

 

[Gino]

Don't you own a saw or some kinda cutting device, other than an Excalibur ?? How do you cut wood ??

 

[2B]

agreed, PVC is much better option. Even by hand cutting PVC is easy, and better than having to replace the damaged boards

In this case because of the QTY and standard size you can stack several boards together clamp them and use a circular saw with a straight fine tooth finishing blade and a track saw base, will be done very quick.
Just do it in an area that is easy to clean because of the debris from cutting

for shipping, we use edge protectors, place in a box and that has MOSTLY been good enough for the brown crew
Heavy Duty Edge Protectors - .225" thick, 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 x 72" S-14337 - Uline

 

[ExecuPrintGS]

We just sent some foamboard prints out to sema. We ended up putting them on a pallet and making a box in a box to keep them from being crushed.

 

[JgS]

Don't you own a saw or some kinda cutting device, other than an Excalibur ?? How do you cut wood ??

I don’t. I run an in-house art department in an office building. No power tools allowed.

 

[JgS]

agreed, PVC is much better option. Even by hand cutting PVC is easy, and better than having to replace the damaged boards

In this case because of the QTY and standard size you can stack several boards together clamp them and use a circular saw with a straight fine tooth finishing blade and a track saw base, will be done very quick.
Just do it in an area that is easy to clean because of the debris from cutting

for shipping, we use edge protectors, place in a box and that has MOSTLY been good enough for the brown crew
Heavy Duty Edge Protectors - .225" thick, 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 x 72" S-14337 - Uline

That's not a bad idea. do you usually use 3mm PVC when mounting posters?

 

[Gino]

So, can't someone get the wood and cut it at home ?? Otherwise, a utility knife isn't a power tool. Set up a table, put your substrate down, clamp a straight edge and cut away until your heart is content.

 

[2B]

That's not a bad idea. do you usually use 3mm PVC when mounting posters?

depends on the use, but 3mm and then 6mm are the most common

 

[JgS]

So it sounds like Foam-cor is trash and I should find a way to make pvc work?

 

[flyplainsdrifta]

we ship foam all the time for temp graphics with maybe 1 in 30 coming back damaged in the normal shipping times, holiday its 1 in 25. double wall cardboard boxes, foam corners, and outer corner protectors and a hell of a lot of filpak. especially since its only two boards the weight is not a huge factor. also having boxes an inch or two bigger than the actual size is what you really need. 38x26x3. something like that.

 

[2B]

we ship foam all the time for temp graphics with maybe 1 in 30 coming back damaged in the normal shipping times, holiday its 1 in 25. double wall cardboard boxes, foam corners, and outer corner protectors and a hell of a lot of filpak. especially since its only two boards the weight is not a huge factor. also having boxes an inch or two bigger than the actual size is what you really need. 38x26x3. something like that.

This is probably the biggest point, regardless of the material

 

[Bradley Signs]

I'll certainly never ship UPS again....

 

[flyplainsdrifta]

I'll certainly never ship UPS again....

at least not during the holidays. literally the day after halloween the truck went from being marginally full to over stuffed and watching the driver walk over packages to get to others. its certainly a scary time to ship anything really.

 

[printhog]

oversized flat boxes and foam corner protectors. Foam Corner Protectors - 3 5/8 x 3 x 2" S-6064 - Uline

 

[FireSprint.com]

We can do this for you, and everything we ship is blind. You could just make this our problem!

 

[Billct2]

You can buy blanks cut to size.