At the end of last month, Mr. Wang from a home appliance exporter in Guangdong came to the factory to inspect the goods. He opened the container and reached into the corner of the container, grinning and laughing: "I have been shipping for eight years, and this is the first time I have seen a container so dry in the rainy season!" This made Lao Chen's eyes hot when he heard it - in order to solve the difficult problem of logistics moisture-proof packaging, these guys spent three full rainy seasons in the simulation cabin.
The story started two years ago. At that time, there was a customer who made precision instruments. The cargo ship encountered wind and waves in the Indian Ocean, and 30% of the circuit boards had "white hair" when they arrived at the port. The customer pointed at the photos of the mildew and slammed the table: "If you continue to fool around with moisture-proof packaging, our business will be ruined sooner or later!" These words were like a heavy hammer, smashing the moisture-proof solution that had been used in the workshop for many years.
We squatted in the container yard of the dock to investigate and found that traditional logistics moisture-proof packaging has only three tricks: desiccant, plastic film, and corrugated paper. In the case of continuous high humidity environment, these methods are like paper shields. Especially for moisture-proof treatment of sea transportation, the temperature difference between day and night can cause condensation on the inner wall to become "light rain" when the container goes from tropical ports to cold routes. The case we did for Southeast Asian fruit merchants last year was the most typical - durian was shipped to the northern port, and water droplets flowed down the packaging box when it was unpacked. The customer was so angry that he threw the return slip on the customs declaration form: "Moisture-proof, moisture-proof, the more you protect, the more moisture you will get!"
The R&D team was serious this time. First, the moisture-proofness of the packaging material was upgraded from scratch, and a layer of nano-silicone film was added to the interlayer of corrugated paper. This film looks as thin as a cicada's wing, but it can withstand continuous impact of 85% humidity in actual tests. But material innovation is only the first step. The key is to make the packaging "breathable". We added an intelligent humidity control system to the new logistics moisture-proof packaging box. This small box is hidden in the interlayer of the box. When the humidity exceeds the standard, the dehumidification mode is automatically activated. The container is not afraid of "steam sauna" when it reaches the equator.
This spring, the actual combat test came. A Chinese medicine company wanted to transport ten tons of medicinal materials to the Middle East. The customer pointed to the contract and specially marked: "The humidity of the container passing through the Indian Ocean must be kept below 60%." We modified three production lines overnight, and the inner wall of the packaging box was covered with honeycomb structure moisture-proof cotton, and the seams of the box were coated with military-grade sealant. The most amazing thing is that humidity sensor lights are installed at the four corners of the container. The green light is normal, the yellow light is warning, and the red light is emergency dehumidification. In the photos sent back by the captain last week, the container crossing the Strait of Malacca still had a steady green light.
However, the difficulty of logistics moisture-proof packaging lies in "thousands of people with thousands of faces". The cross-border e-commerce customer I met last month was eye-opening - they shipped cosmetics and dry seafood at the same time, and required that the moisture-proof solutions for different goods in the same container "live their own lives". We made a double-layer moisture-proof barrier for the cosmetic box, and the seafood box strengthened the anti-salt spray corrosion function. On the day of delivery, the customer took two packaging boxes for a comparative experiment: the cosmetic box was as stable as a mountain in an 85% humidity environment, and the seafood box was soaked in salt water spray for 48 hours without a drop of water.
The workshop master often said: "Moisture-proof is a conscientious job, and whether it is lazy or not will be revealed after opening the box." Last year, we helped Yunnan coffee merchants with a moisture-proof treatment project for shipping. When the goods arrived at the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, it was snowing heavily. At the moment of opening the box, the Dutch buyer reached out and touched the coffee bag, turned his head and asked: "Is this packaging coated with a waterproof film?" In fact, the mystery lies in the phase change material in the packaging interlayer - this thing absorbs moisture at high temperature and releases heat at low temperature, which is both moisture-proof and anti-freeze, and the moisture content of coffee beans is controlled within the life and death line.
It is the typhoon season now, and the factory's moisture-proof packaging orders are scheduled until the end of the year. Yesterday, a customer pointed to the new product shelf and asked: "Will your intelligent humidity control system crash like a mobile phone?" Xiao Liu from the Quality Inspection Department directly carried the sample box into the shower room, and the rain-like water flow rushed for ten minutes. When he opened the box, the detector showed that the humidity did not move at all. The customer stared at the jumping numbers and murmured: "If I had met you three years earlier, my batch of damp silk would not have lost half a year's profit..." Standing in the exhibition hall full of moisture-proof test reports, looking at the world shipping map on the wall, I suddenly felt that we who engage in logistics moisture-proof packaging are like putting life jackets on goods. Next time you are worried about moisture-proof problems when loading containers, remember to come to the workshop - the equipment that is doing salt spray testing will definitely give you a new understanding of "watertight". After all, after more than ten years of hard work in this industry, we know too well: moisture-proof is not about water, but about the hanging hearts of customers!
