Clamtainer® helps Powell realize 90% reduction in packaging costs What do an electronics distributor and custom plastic company have in common? A lot if you are talking about Powell Electronics, Jamestown Plastics, and their approach to better serving the electronics connector market! Powell Electronics specializes in high reliability, harsh environment connector design, manufacturing, and supply chain. They manage over 7 million SKUs, many of which are custom-made to their customers’ unique needs and specifications. Because of this customization, packaging of their products for safe transit can be challenging. For 20 years Ernie Schilling, Jr., CEO of Powell Electronics, had been searching for a flexible packaging solution that would work for his business. He wanted to move away from the time-consuming process his team was using that involved manipulating standard packaging and cutting packages down to protect the highly sensitive products that Powell was shipping. Enter Jamestown Plastics! A couple of years ago Schilling attended the SHOT Show where he came across Clamtainer®, a patented packaging solution from Jamestown Plastics that turns the cursed clamshell into a reusable container. As the two companies started talking, they soon realized that Clamtainer could be tremendous help for Powell Electronics. Clamtainer provides a more efficient packing process, requiring no buttons, no welding, no heat sealing, and no equipment to buy or maintain. Clamtainer also stays securely closed but can be easily opened with one hand. Even better…it can be reused to store the original item that came inside of it or other items that fit. Clamtainer is also recyclable once it reaches the end of its useful life. Powell Electronics introduced Clamtainer to its fulfillment processes with minimal changes to its procedures. Since starting with Clamtainer, Powell has seen tremendous improvements and savings: The “decision tree” for determining packaging is much easier for the packing team, providing a 500-fold increase in packing efficiency. By using clear Clamtainers, the inspection department can inspect the product before shipping without having to open the container. Total packaging costs (labor and materials) have decreased 90%. With packaging that better fits and protects its products during transit, returns have decreased 75% Together, Powell Electronics and Jamestown Plastics are helping to ensure these highly sensitive (and in many cases urgently needed) products are protected during transit and while being stored, all while packaging the products much more efficiently! Contact Jamestown Plastics today to discuss how Clamtainer can be used within your business! Get Started
Consumer Product Canadian regulations stick it to manufacturer; Jamestown Plastics finds solution. A major adhesives manufacturer selling glue in Canada had a problem. Canada has a stringent (600-pound gorilla) child-resistant packaging regulation, forcing the use of extremely excessive consumer packaging that both consumers and manufacturers despised. To comply, the manufacturer literally put their tubes of glue [...]
Impala How Jamestown Plastics turned an Impala into a Corvette, almost overnight. We were literally paid a personal visit late one day with an eleventh-hour need to redesign the across-the-back taillight package on the Chevy Impala to look more like the taillights on the ever-popular Corvette. Seems the vehicle engineering group working with GM couldn’t [...]
Medical Three times stronger using half the material? Yes, we did it! A major medical device manufacturer, frustrated with the seemingly never-ending price increases for basic thermoformed medical trays that hold the medical device they make, came to Jamestown Plastics and asked if we could design a more cost-effective solution. The problem with their existing tray [...]
TRW How a simple Ford F150 factory visit and an old machine resulted in substantial cost and time savings. While visiting the TRW factory that makes the headlight switch cover (this is the switch that gives you several headlight operation options, each of which is illuminated when selected) for the Ford F150, we observed a [...]
CLENZOIL Clamtainer helps Clenzoil create custom packages without a custom package Clenzoil produces and sells CLP (cleaner, lubricant, and protectant) and related products to outdoor enthusiasts to help care for their gear. The initial Clenzoil “Field & Range” product was developed in 1948 by a World War II Army Captain to help prevent weapons from “freezing” [...]
Cannabis Chocolate Bars It took longer to package these candy bars then it took to consume them. Cannabis-infused chocolate bars have become quite popular. But for the manufacturer, packaging the bars was taking more time than it took consumers to consume them. The manufacturer of these chocolate bars would place the bars into a plastic tray, then [...]
Respironics How Jamestown Plastics helped make a sleep apnea mask that changed the industry forever. One of the key problems with sleep apnea masks in the early days of the technology was air leakage. The common solution was to simply make the mask fit tighter, but then this caused wearer discomfort. Recognizing an opportunity to [...]
Automotive When the console is an eyesore, cover it – and quickly! A major auto manufacturer had a shipment of finished vehicles on the boat headed to the US. But market studies showed they had a problem. It seemed that their console color scheme was not going to work in the US. Their solution was [...]
Tyco Electronics (now TE Connectivity Ltd.) How Jamestown Plastics helped achieve automation goals. As they were installing a new automation line, Tyco Electronics realized that the line would not function properly to meet its automation goals without tight tolerance part locating trays. With a tight deadline, creating injection molding tooling and making parts was not an option. However, manufacturing a [...]
TRICO Technologies (retail packaging) How JP innovated retail packaging and reduced pack-out costs TRICO Technologies approached Jamestown Plastics to create a retail clamshell for their windshield wiper product line. They challenged us to eliminate all the traditional methods of keeping a clamshell closed such as plastic welding, snap locks, glue, and overwrap sleeves. Plus, they demanded that the [...]
HealthCare Logistics How Jamestown Plastics increased pack-out efficiency exponentially! HealthCare Logistics is a leader in labels for the medical industry. Historically, they housed their label rolls in basic chipboard boxes which had to be assembled, then a sample label attached to the box to identify what labels were inside. All of these steps took time and [...]
Automotive Leading Automotive Styling Innovation The automotive styling landscape is everchanging, with manufacturers continuously introducing new design features on their various models. Keeping up with these constant changes can be difficult. Jamestown Plastics has not just met this challenge, but we have proven to be a leader in styling/restyling innovation and technology. We take on even the [...]
TRICO Products Corporation (dunnage trays) Wrapping windshield wipers was wiping out profits until Jamestown Plastics came to the rescue. TRICO Products Corporation is a major manufacturer of windshield wipers. As part of their packaging pack-out process, TRICO employees would wrap every pair of wipers in kraft paper and place the wrapped wipers into cartons. The problem with wrapping wipers [...]
Medical Solving a sticky situation with a simple solution saved a fortune. While in our customer’s facilities, we noticed workers sterilizing individual parts, but struggling to disengage these bulk product parts that were stacked together for shipping. The problem turned out to be the result of jostling during transit. Convinced we could save them time, we [...]
Tesla How Jamestown Plastics saved the day for Tesla, creating a hood liner that both cost less and weighed less. In their all-important introductory year, Tesla’s EPP foam supplier, responsible for making a hood liner for the “frunk” in a model S, was unable to meet criteria called out by Tesla and reached out to [...]
Electronics One Packaging Solution from Manufacturing to End Customer A customer contacted us with an urgent request to develop a package for one of their most expensive and delicate products. The product needed to be protected during the manufacturing and assembly processes all the way through shipping to distribution centers. It also needed to deliver [...]
Sustainability Sustainability and Plastic CAN Co-Exist Is sustainability important to a company’s success? It has been reported that up to 90% of business executives believe sustainability should be part of their long-term strategy. While some believe that plastic needs to be eliminated to reach their sustainability goals, consumer brands can implement smart and thoughtful plastic [...]
