Textile export cartons should be 5-ply or 7-ply corrugated board with a stated bursting strength or edge crush test value, sized to fit the pallet without overhang, sealed on every seam, strapped and kept under a sensible weight limit per carton. Five-ply suits most garments and lighter made-ups; seven-ply is the choice for heavy fabrics, denim, bedding and anything that will be stacked high or handled loose. Write the specification into the purchase order, because a factory left to choose will pick the cheapest board that survives its own warehouse.
This article gives a practical packing standard you can send to a supplier and check at loading. Adjust the figures for your product and your warehouse, and ask your receiving team what they need before you fix it.
Carton specification
- Board grade: 5-ply (double wall) for cartons of garments or made-ups up to around 15 kilograms; 7-ply (triple wall) for heavier contents, long voyages or loose air freight. Ask for the board certificate showing bursting strength or edge crush test value and keep it on file.
- Weight: set a maximum per carton, commonly 15 to 20 kilograms for cartons handled by hand, and a lower figure if your warehouse has a manual handling limit. Heavier cartons fail at the base and injure people.
- Dimensions: choose one or two carton sizes that tile onto your pallet footprint with no overhang. Overhanging cartons lose much of their stacking strength, and odd sizes waste container space.
- Inner protection: a polythene liner or individual poly bags to keep moisture off the goods, with a desiccant sachet where the product or season needs it.
- Sealing: water-resistant tape on all seams, top and bottom, with the flaps meeting rather than overlapping or gaping. Strapping in two directions for 7-ply cartons and for anything near the weight limit.
Marking and labelling
Each carton needs the order reference, style, colour, size breakdown, quantity, carton number out of the total, gross and net weight and dimensions, printed or on a label that will not peel in humidity. Add orientation marks where relevant and a barcode if your warehouse scans inbound. Marks should match the packing list exactly, since a mismatch between the two is one of the most common reasons for a count query at receipt.
If cartons will go straight to a retail distribution centre, ask the retailer for their inbound carton specification and send it to the factory with the order. Repacking at destination to meet a spec that was never passed on costs more than the cartons did.
Palletising and loading
Stack cartons in a column pattern on the pallet so that the corners align, which is where the strength is, rather than interlocking them like bricks. Keep the stack level, stretch-wrap it to the pallet including the base, and add corner boards if the pallet will be double-stacked in the container. Wooden pallets need the ISPM 15 mark; plastic pallets avoid the question and resist moisture better.
In the container, heavier cartons go at the bottom of each stack, the load is braced so it cannot shift, and no carton sits on its side. For a floor-loaded container with no pallets, which some buyers use to fit more in, the carton grade needs to step up because the bottom tier carries the whole stack for the voyage.
How we help
We check the carton specification against the purchase order at a pre-shipment inspection, including the board certificate, carton weight and marking, and we supervise palletising and loading so the stack goes in as planned. Photographs and the weekly update keep you informed. If you would like a packing standard drawn up for your product, book a free 20-minute sourcing review.