Liberty Intercept Blog

Manufacturing companies seeking to save time by eliminating the application of protective oils to their products may want to consider heavy duty barrier packaging as a solution. Besides time savings, other benefits to this approach include cleaner products and cleaner more streamlined operations.

My son is a guitar player. He started playing the guitar at eight years old and is now playing professionally.  Along with our drummer son, as a family we would spend many hours at music stores looking at, and eventually buying, musical instruments, parts, and gear. Always good for holiday and birthday “extra” gifts, D’Addario guitar strings were well received by our son and compared to other musical products, at very reasonable prices in the string gauges he prefers. Our guitar string purchases were personally pleasing to me because D’Addario uses a product line we represent with our Liberty Packaging business, Corrosion Intercept® packaging. For all guitar players reading this, the copper-colored inner-pack bags that protect the strings in storage and shipping Corrosion Intercept barrier protection.

Intercept Technology™ barrier packaging has found many markets internationally, particularly in Europe. Bell Labs invented Intercept heavy duty barrier bags and films to help them solve problems with corrosion on the printed wire boards (PWB) metals. In the late 1980s, AT&T manufacturing, which later became Lucent and is now Alcatel-Lucent protected their PWB in Static Intercept barrier packaging which also has the properties of perfect static dissipation protection (ESD - electro-static discharge).

When looking at all the Intercept Technology barrier packaging photos across the web, (there are many) as well as on the Liberty Packaging web site, surely it can be a bit confusing.  Why are there dark-colored Intercept films, copper-colored Intercept film, and white-colored Intercept films? How can small, sensitive items and such large items as helicopters and drilling rigs be protected with the same material? One might ask “how can our important products be protected by the same packaging as other products that don’t even look like ours?”

Liberty Packaging representatives have recently been consulting with companies about the option to have cleaner operations by reducing or eliminating the application of protective oils to their products.

In manufacturing, these protective oils act as a barrier to corrosive gases, primarily for the protection of metals.  Liberty Packaging offers a free consultation to companies who want a cleaner operation and product. Of course, not all operations can eliminate oils - they are necessary in some instances - but our philosophy as concerned citizens and manufacturing business advocates is that we can help eliminate some of the oil dependency.

My wife returned from her business trip to Las Vegas with a gift for me. Elaine said the trade show she visited was fascinating, but my mind was focused on the shiny gift bag she held in her hand.

The smallish, designer, bottom and side gusseted, heavy card stock bag is a distinguished, full-color print to match the color scheme of the product inside. From the flat bottom, the shape tapers inward toward the opening, which features a die cut handle and ribbon closure. Inside the bag is a box surrounded by clear shrink wrap.

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt wrote in her book "This is America" of Main Street in Hingham, Massachusetts, “This is the most beautiful main street in America.”  Historical Hingham was settled in 1633 and as I was driving one of its first roads recently, I realized it would be hard to disagree with her assessment. Big, beautiful, well-manicured homes are recessed from the street; stone walls built by craftsman mold into the contours of the land; old-growth trees shade the neighborhood.

We can talk about better packaging, shipping and storage, and decreased carbon footprint any day. It’s summer, and I’d like to share something different, a more personal story:

My wife and I were on one of my favorite beaches recently, Nantasket Beach in Hull, MA.  My fondness is based not only on memories of lifeguarding Nantasket in the mid to late 70s, but also because it’s a public beach where on any given hot day, thousands of sunbathers will visit, so it has a bit of a honky tonk edge.  You can people-watch all day long at Nantasket, observing all sorts of characters and the interplay between fellow sun worshipers.

I had the opportunity to hear the vice president of a major computer company speak about reliability and the tactics they use to achieve increased product reliability.  Because human nature strives to keep things the same and views change as uncomfortable, he emphasized that the change process was long and arduous. This VP was brought in like the new sheriff arriving in Dodge City. It was apparent he had complete executive support to change this company’s operation and design systems; in doing so he would enact a change in its culture. It worked famously. Their return has been extraordinary; they achieved tremendous increases in product reliability which led to lowered cost of goods on every level of the corporation and a stronger reputation amongst their customers.

Having worked with Intercept Technology protective plastic packaging for 15 years, one of the many benefits we depict about the Intercept product line is that it does not contain volatiles. Intercept packaging is volatile free. This emphasis is important, in part, to differentiate Intercept from common corrosion protection packaging materials that do use volatiles.  Reading a recent article on the pollution sources of our lakes and streams was a revelation and provided impetus to explain:  what is the significance of the term “volatile free”; what’s the big deal?