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Packing cut parts for courier

A clean cut is only half the job. If parts arrive in Durban, Cape Town or Polokwane with scuffed faces or snapped corners, the nest may as well have failed. Here is how we pack cut parts at Sunnyrock so they survive the courier.

Ms Firdous Moosajee · Materials

Cut acrylic and MDF parts packed with foam and corner protectors in a courier box

Workshop context

Most of our cut parts leave Gauteng by road courier, sometimes on two or three trucks and a sorting hub before they reach a client. Every handover is a chance for a box to be dropped, stacked under something heavy or left in the sun.

What we recommend

Keep protective film on, interleave every face, pack tight so nothing slides, and agree the packing standard with us before the nest is cut, not after the parts are on the bench.

Protect the faces first

Clear acrylic, mirror sheet and painted ACM all scratch easily, and the worst scratches happen when two parts rub together on a bumpy road. We leave the factory protective film on both sides wherever the finish allows. Where film was removed for flame polishing or engraving, we add a fresh low-tack film or wrap the part in soft foam sheet. Every part is separated from its neighbour by foam, corrugated card or bubble wrap, so no two faces ever touch.

MDF and plywood parts are less fragile on the face but chip on edges and corners. Those get card corner protectors and are banded in small stacks so they cannot shuffle.

Choosing the right box

Courier depots stack boxes high, so a flimsy box will crush long before anything is dropped. We use double wall cartons for heavier loads and keep box sizes close to the part size, with no more than a few centimetres of padding space on each side.

Small acrylic signs and badges: flat cartons with foam layers, packed in rows

Large panels: flat packed between two sheets of board, edges taped and corners capped

Plate and steel brackets: wrapped in VCI paper or oiled film to prevent rust, then boxed by weight

Mixed jobs: heavy parts at the bottom, light parts on top, never loose

If a box rattles when we shake it, it gets repacked. That simple shake test catches most problems.

Labels, counts and paperwork

Each box gets a label with the job number, box count such as 2 of 5, a part list and an orientation arrow if it matters. Parts that look similar but differ by a hole or a mirror image are bagged and labelled separately, so the person unpacking on site does not have to guess. We photograph the packed box before it is sealed, which helps if a courier claim is ever needed.

For fragile jobs we mark the outer carton clearly and ask the courier for flat transport. It does not guarantee careful handling, but it helps.

A recent example

A retail fit-out team in Cape Town ordered sixty clear acrylic shelf fronts and twenty white ACM panels for a store opening. The first test shipment of five shelf fronts arrived with two scuffed edges because they had been packed with only paper between them. For the full order we kept film on both faces, added foam sheet between every front, packed in rows of ten in flat double wall cartons and capped every corner. All eighty parts arrived clean and the installers fitted them on the first day.

What to tell us when you order

Packing is easier to get right when we know where parts are going and what happens next. When you send us a message, mention:

The delivery town and whether it is a business or site address

Whether film must stay on until installation

Any part that is fragile, heavy or oversize

How you want boxes grouped, for example by floor or by assembly

Whether you will collect from Sunnyrock or need courier