Design – Structural
Structural Design Services
Rice Packaging has 55 + years’ experience in the packaging industry. Our package designers can provide creative and custom solutions to best fit your company’s needs. We offer a wide range of packaging designs. Our package designers pride themselves on their creativity and quality solutions for your consideration. We customize and design a wide range of products from folding cartons and display boxes, to sleeves, mailers, cards and tags. We have capabilities to produce multiple samples on your chosen substrate in-house for testing and approvals. The range of sizes for our folding carton designs is expansive.
TRADE SHOW SAMPLES
Our design team can create product samples and mock-ups for your hands on assessment or your marketing demands. Your customers will better appreciate the value of your product with a top quality trade show packaging sample.
We Don’t Just Draw Boxes. We Engineer Protection.
A pretty box that crushes on a pallet is a liability. At Rice Packaging, our Structural Design Team bridges the gap between aesthetic branding and industrial durability. We use advanced CAD systems to prototype packaging that survives the supply chain while minimizing material waste.
The Structural Design Process
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Product Audit: We measure your physical product (weight, fragility, dimensions) to determine the necessary caliper (thickness) of the board—whether it requires 18pt SBS for retail or a laminated E-flute for heavy automotive parts.
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CAD Prototyping (The “White Sample”): Before we print a single pixel, we cut an unprinted structural sample on our plotting table. We send this to you to test:
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Fit: Does the product rattle? (Rattling leads to breakage).
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Assembly: Can your fulfillment team fold and pack it in under 10 seconds?
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Stacking Strength: Will it hold up under the weight of a full pallet?
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Die-Line Creation: Once the structure is approved, we generate a precision electronic die-line for your graphic designers. This ensures that your artwork stays within the “safe zones” and that glue flaps don’t interfere with your branding.
Capabilities & Specifications
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Substrate Engineering: We calculate the grain direction of the paperboard to maximize vertical compression strength.
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Insert Design: We engineer custom paperboard inserts to lock products in place, eliminating the need for expensive and non-recyclable foam or plastic blisters.
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G7 Master Pre-Press: Our pre-press workflow is G7 Master Qualified, meaning we manage color from the digital file to the offset press with mathematical precision.
Frequently Asked Questions (Design)
Yes. “Right-sizing” is a core service. We often find that clients are using standard box sizes that are too large, requiring expensive void fill (peanuts/bubble wrap). We can engineer a custom fit that eliminates that waste and reduces your shipping “Dim Weight.”
No. Structural design is included as part of our manufacturing partnership. You bring the product; we build the blueprint.