Octagonal Corrugated Bulk Box with Cover

A bulk box, also known as a bulk bin, skid box, pallet box, bin box, gaylord, or octabin, is a

pallet A pallet (also called a skid) is a flat transport structure, which supports goods in a stable fashion while being lifted by a forklift, a pallet jack, a Loader (equipment), front loader, a Jack (mechanical), jacking device, or an erect cra ...

-size

box A box (plural: boxes) is a container with rigid sides used for the storage or transportation of its contents. Most boxes have flat, parallel, rectangular sides (typically rectangular prisms). Boxes can be very small (like a matchbox) or v ...

used for storage and shipping of bulk or packaged goods. Bulk boxes can be designed to hold many different types of items such as plastic pellets, watermelons, electronic components, and even liquids; some bulk boxes are stackable. In the U.S. and Canada, the term ''gaylord'' is sometimes used for triplewall corrugated pallet boxes; this is due to the first bulk bins being manufactured by the original Gaylord Container Company of

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

, which was acquired by Crown Zellerbach of

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

in 1955.

Construction

Bulk boxes are often made of

corrugated fiberboard Corrugated fiberboard, corrugated cardboard, or corrugated is a type of packaging material consisting of a fluted corrugated sheet and one or two flat linerboards. It is made on "flute lamination machines" or "corrugators" and is used for maki ...

, either doublewall or triplewall. Many corrugated bulk boxes have covers. The main body of some is similar to a ''half slotted container'' with flaps on the bottom; others have a separate base (similar to the cover) and a sleeve for side walls. Additional corrugated liners and box reinforcement are sometimes used to control bulging.

Wooden box A wooden box is a container made of wood for storage or as a shipping container. Construction may include several types of wood; lumber (timber), plywood, engineered woods, etc. For some purposes, decorative woods are used. Boxes as shi ...

es are also used for bulk

packaging Packaging is the science, art and technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale, and use. Packaging also refers to the process of designing, evaluating, and producing packages. Packaging can be described as a coo ...

; boxes made of

aluminum Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

and

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

are common in

heavy industry Heavy industry is an industry that involves one or more characteristics such as large and heavy products; large and heavy equipment and facilities (such as heavy equipment, large machine tools, huge buildings and large-scale infrastructure); o ...

. Reusable plastic totes (molded or

corrugated plastic Corrugated plastic or corriboard – also known under the trade names of Correx, Biplex, Cartonplast, Polyflute, Coroplast, FlutePlast, IntePro, Proplex, Twinplast, Corriflute and Corflute – refers to a wide range of extruded twin-wall plast ...

) are used for some products and logistics chains. For some products, inner plastic liners or

bin bag A bin bag, rubbish bag (British English), garbage bag, bin liner, trash bag (American English) or refuse sack is a disposable receptable for solid waste. These bags are useful to line the insides of waste containers to prevent the insides of th ...

s are used to protect the contents. Sealed inner bags with integral valves are sometimes used for liquids. Most bulk boxes are

recyclable Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. This concept often includes the recovery of energy from waste materials. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the propert ...

, returnable, or reusable. Some styles of boxes fold (knock down) or come apart for easier return shipments.

Use

Bulk boxes are used for loose parts, mixed small

containers A container is any receptacle or enclosure for holding a product used in storage, packaging, and transportation, including shipping. Things kept inside of a container are protected on several sides by being inside of its structure. The term ...

, granular materials, powders, liquids, etc. Use in industry is common: shipping and storage of bulk intermediate materials prior to further processing or packaging. They are sometimes used to collect and ship materials for

recycling Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. This concept often includes the recovery of energy from waste materials. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the propert ...

and

waste Waste are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. A by-product, by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor Value (economics), economic value. A wast ...

. When used to ship

hazardous waste Hazardous waste is waste that must be handled properly to avoid damaging human health or the environment. Waste can be hazardous because it is Toxicity, toxic, Chemical reaction, reacts violently with other chemicals, or is Corrosion, corrosive, ...

dangerous goods Dangerous goods are substances that are a risk to health, safety, property or the environment during transport. Certain dangerous goods that pose risks even when not being transported are known as hazardous materials ( syllabically abbreviate ...

, box construction and use are highly regulated.

ASTM standards

* D5168 Standard Practice for Fabrication and Closure of Triple-wall Corrugated Containers * D6179 Standard Test Methods for Rough Handling of Unitized Loads and Large Shipping Cases and Crates * D6251 Standard Specification for Wood-Cleated Panelboard Shipping Boxes * D6254 Standard Specification for Wirebound Pallet-Type Wood Boxes * D6256 Standard Specification for Wood-Cleated Shipping Boxes and Skidded, Load-Bearing Bases * D6573 Standard Specification for General Purpose Wirebound Shipping Boxes * D6880-05 Standard Specification for wooden boxes

Construction

Use

ASTM standards

See also

References

Further reading