Liberty Intercept Blog

Aren’t all anti-corrosion packaging materials the same?

No. Barrier protection products work in vastly different ways. The Intercept Technology line of products protects in two ways. First, they act as a moisture barrier. Second, Intercept reacts with and permanently neutralizes corrosive gases to form a corrosive gas barrier. This dual form of protection eliminates the two elements needed to form atmospheric corrosion. Intercept’s mechanism for protection is sacrificial, therefore, it won’t contaminate the product it’s protecting. The typical “waterproof” or vapor barrier bag/shroud concept is to attempt to keep the atmosphere and/or relative humidity from the protected product; whereas the emitting protection products, packaging and canisters, will surround the product with a volatile vapor. More...

Are desiccants needed with Intercept products?

Yes and no. If there are no large voids in the package, then the Intercept will react with the corrosive gases within the package and eliminate the potential danger without desiccating. However, if there are large voids that don’t allow the Intercept material to be close to some areas, then it would be best to utilize desiccants, making sure that the desiccants are not directly touching metals. Please consult with us for your recommended usage.

For the first time in the nearly forty year history of the IEEE Milestones program, the group gave four awards in one day to the same company. That company is of course Bell Labs, currently a subsidiary of Alcatel Lucent. President of Bell Labs Marcus Weldon (center of photo) was there to receive the four awards for communications theory and networks, wireless and satellite communications, digital signal processing and computing, and solid-state and optical devices.

As a founding member of the worldwide trade association Intercept Technology Group, Liberty Packaging has a wealth of information to share when it comes to industrial packaging, corrosion, electrostatic discharge, insect inhibition, and shrink wrapping. Our Intercept group includes many talented people from varied industrial backgrounds, all willing to share and contribute to help companies from all across the globe solve problems, increase their product reliability, decrease costs, and hence improve your company's profits or help meet difficult budgets.

Introducing Intercept Technology “corrosion protection” message yellow tape. The purpose of this tape is to be wrapped around the finished Intercept package informing anyone who sees it that the product inside is protected from corrosion. The message is printed on the sturdy, high tack, high visibility yellow plastic tape which has the Intercept Technology logo printed on it followed by a message in 6 different languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese. The message reads: “Attention - Intercept corrosion protection packaging. These goods have been protected against corrosion using a protective packaging method. In order to not have any corrosion damage to the goods, the packaging must be sealed immediately again after opening.”

Perhaps you’ve noticed the increased quality and style in Liberty Packaging’s shared content over the last year. This improvement can be attributed to our newest creative and tech staffer, Greg Spitz.  Certainly, his last two videos “Corrosion - Its Natural” and “ESD and Static - Fun With Science” are unique and engaging.  Greg took on two very complex subjects which continue to be studied in great detail by generations of scientists, engineers, and other specialists. There are associations, companies such as Liberty Packaging, seminars, white papers, trade shows and other groups specifically geared to the study and management of corrosion and ESD.  Greg stepped back to view the big picture on these issues and simplified them for two three-minute videos that just make sense. We urge you to take a look.

Oh, paints! One of my pet peeves as a homeowner is when it comes time to use the paints for touch-up after they’ve been stored for a time, they are a mess and unusable (see gunky rusty metal paint can at left compared to nice clean paint can after storage in Intercept packaging). The cans become rusty and cruddy, the paint inside and thick, gunky, with rust particles from the can floating through it. The issue for me then becomes the disposal of up to a half gallon of bad paint. The oil-based paints are deposited at the town’s hazardous waste drop-off, collected once a year, which is fine if I am available on that day. Latex paints are supposed to be dried out and placed in the general trash...I don’t like that. Drying out paint in the can is an unrealistic chore. Disposing of paint in the general trash pickup just doesn’t feel right.

Even if you are an electrical engineer and these are elementary terms from your high school and college days, it may be fruitful to review their meanings and logic to see if you currently have sufficient packaging to protect your company’s products and assets.  

At Liberty Packaging, where our clients are mostly industrial manufacturers, we have labeled the month of February ESD Month, as the weather across much of the United States is colder with less humidity.  Electrostatic discharge is more likely to happen at this time of the year, for instance, when you pull two articles of clothing apart, you hear that crackling noise (charge devise model or CDM) or when you walk across the carpet to touch a metal door knob and zap!....that's the Human Body Model (HBM). 

If you were to research “Intercept barrier packaging products”, you would find many different options. Some Intercept Technology™ packaging appears black in color, some copper-colored, some white, and some silver. So what is it with the different colors and what would be best for you? Let me explain.