Inevitably, the cold weather and winter arrive, and in packaging areas and warehouses, it is necessary to anticipate and prepare so that everything keeps functioning, to avoid delays, problems, and economic losses, and to ensure logistics continuity under adverse weather conditions.
During winter, low temperatures, humidity, and thermal variations can cause packaging materials to become more brittle, unstable, and less effective. This affects the operational efficiency of the packaging area and also increases the risk of breakage, which compromises the integrity of the packaging and its essential function.
Professionals are well aware of the need to adapt their facilities. In addition to ensuring proper conditions and facilitating the tasks of the people working in these areas, it is essential to protect the most sensitive products and prevent cold, humidity, or condensation from deteriorating the materials, as well as to check the status and ensure that equipmentis ready and functioning correctly.
This essential adaptation will guarantee the quality and integrity of the products during storage and transit and will prevent economic losses, ensuring logistics continuity in the complicated climatic conditions brought by winter.
Using materials that adapt to packaging needs in winter as well will prevent problems in the packaging area and during transit, as well as economic losses |
Impact of winter on parcel sealing
The effect that low temperatures and winter conditions have on materials can affect the integrity and performance and compromise the security of the plastic adhesive tape used to close cardboard boxes or parcels.
The cold causes a loss of adhesion, caused by the reduction in the viscosity of the adhesive on plastic tapes: this difficulty in penetrating the cardboard material and generating sufficient adhesion increases the risk of the tape not sticking well or peeling off.
At very low temperatures—or in frozen environments—the adhesive can even crystallize, rendering the plastic tape completely useless. Furthermore, the cold makes the polypropylene material more brittle: it breaks easily when unrolled and/or applied. For this reason, it is necessary to recommend limited temperatures between 18ºC and 35ºC and never below 10ºC when closing cardboard with plastic tape.
An inadequate or weak seal can compromise the security of the shipment, facilitating unauthorized openings, product tampering, and theft during the transport phase. If the adhesive is plastic and of low quality, it will not offer the necessary resistance for the weight and tension of the package.
Cardboard and gummed paper also in winter
Corrugated cardboard is an excellent thermal insulator because it traps air between its flutes, helping to maintain temperature. However, it also absorbs the humidity associated with colder weather conditions relatively easily, which also influences the material, causing adhesives and tapes not to adhere as well at low temperatures, which can lead to seals peeling off and openings in the packaging during transport.
Gummed paper tape addresses all these specific problems: its vegetable starch adhesive does not suffer alterations; it is activated upon contact with water and merges with the cardboard of the box, regardless of temperature changes and climatic conditions.
The adhesive bond achieved by gummed paper tape is permanent, resistant, and robust, making it the optimal option for sealing and shipping packages during the colder months of the year.
How does gummed paper tape work in winter?
Water-activated tape is designed specifically for sealing corrugated cardboard boxes. It works through capillary adhesion, meaning that when the paper is wet, the starch adhesive activates and penetrates the fibers of the cardboard by capillarity, bonding them strongly. In this way, the gummed paper tape not only adheres to the surface of the cardboard but integrates into the structure of the cardboard, reinforcing and unifying a secure and resistant package that functions as a mono-material unit.
The efficiency of automatic dispensers will streamline the sealing processes in industrial production environments, increasing performance in packaging areas in all different weather conditions throughout the year.
Once activated, the adhesive forms such a strong bond that to open the package, the tape will need to be broken, with all the consequences and the resulting evidence of tampering.
Our customers, depending on the case, also reinforce the corners and edges of the boxes with gummed paper for greater protection.
Gummed paper ensures a strong and secure seal for cardboard boxes, protecting them from weather conditions, and guarantees its adhesive power and properties in low temperatures and humid conditions. |
Do you already have gummed paper for sealing your packaging during this winter's campaigns?
Contact our technical team.
