PowerPly™

Packaging Corporation of America has reintroduced PowerPly™ to the market to address issues regarding sustainability and wax alternatives. PowerPly™ is one of the strongest corrugated materials that is safe, nontoxic and recyclable. Increased stacking strength, beam strength, flat crush, and puncture are achieved through the laminating of two mediums before flute formation with a special adhesive that magnifies the normal characteristics of the laminated medium. PowerPly™ has been able to address sustainability issues by redesigning heavy doublewall or singlewall items to a lighter test with PowerPly™ mediums. PowerPly™ provides more compression strength, more puncture, and three times the flat crush. These performance figures create a very durable container that will stack over an extended period under adverse conditions. The flat crush and puncture figures make it excellent for product protection, heavy or flow-able materials. The PowerPly™ medium can provide unusual strength for the bliss style container ends allowing for additional downgrading opportunities.

With the increasing pressure for "green" packaging and continued escalation of petroleum costs, which affects the cost of wax curtain coating and cascading, there has been a demand for us to develop an acceptable alternative. The increase of wax cost has resulted in carton cost increase of 20% over the past 18 months separate from paper increases. Customers are being forced by the "green" initiative and wax cost to find an alternative that is less costly and recyclable, but performs! PowerPly™ has been an important component to solve this challenge. Cascaded wax is extensively used in the produce industry to field pack and ship vegetables. The carton must be durable, perform under humid conditions, and protect the produce through the supply chain. By working with several outside coatings of liner and teaming PowerPly™ with these treated liners, we have been able to provide to our customers a carton that performs in the field, is recyclable, competes favorably with cascade costs and withstands the rigors of the supply chain handling.

For more information on PowerPly™ please contact the Harrisonburg or Winter Haven manufacturing facilities.