Common bulk bag failures and how to prevent them
When a bulk bag fails, it's more than just a cleanup problem. The couple of thousand pounds of spilled product left on the ground represents a big production loss -- especially if the bag contains a high-value product. Two of the biggest causes of bulk bag failures are forklift handling problems and ultraviolet degradation of the bag components as the result of outdoor storage. This article gives some practical advice for avoiding these problems and the headaches that come along with them.
Handling your filled bulk bags (also called flexible intermediate bulk containers [FIBCs]) means moving them from processing to storage, hauling them from storage to shipping, and loading them into a shipping carrier or container that travels to your customer's facility, where the bags are finally unloaded. Along the way, the bags may sit outside on your loading dock, on the dock at a shipping port, or in the customer's outdoor storage area. Each of these steps in the journey to your customer can be hazardous to bulk bags.