How to securely pack when shipping porcelain... Only two or three methods are suitable for shipping ceramics internationally. These are proven to be less prone to breakage when shipping very long distances. They all involve artificial packing materials which are flexible.
Other methods may be feasible, but those involving newspaper are definitely NOT suitable for shipping porcelain! If you are the buyer and buy porcelain from a seller packing with newspaper – RUN!
Bad example-the packaging material shown below was actually used, resulting in broken porcelain:
There is a very high risk that a porcelain item packed with newspaper does not arrive intact if sent to the other side of the globe. The longer the journey until arrival the higher is the risk that it breaks.
Newspaper and other "natural" materials are NOT proper packaging material for shipping porcelain! Newspaper doesn't really have any elasticity. The crumpled paper only appears flexible because of the air in between, when the crumpled paper is pressed on. With continued pressure from the packed item's weight, and the vibrations or shaking from transport equipment, etc. filling materials like newspaper easily get compressed. The initial, apparent flexibility is lost and the paper settles or moves inside the box. Once it settles (is compressed) its flexibility is greatly reduced and at the same time the volume of the package content decreases also. This again leaves less voluminous loose filler material and more empty spaces. The problem is - the filler material should be tightly holding the porcelain in place!
Continuously exposed to vibrations and shaking during a long journey all flexibility is lost. The content inevitably changes location within the box and often moves dangerously close to the bottom or side walls of the box.
Is it a wonder? Todays parcels are exposed to vibrations all the time when they are in transit. First on the different transport vehicles when they are moved from a post office to an airport handling center, then they may be exposed to conveyor belts or trolley vibrations, or worse even, they are running directly on the iron rollers of a transport "slope", etc.
They may have to pass through X-ray examination equipment before they can be brought on a plane. Then, they are exposed to vibrations as they are transported on the tarmac to the plane. Airplane containers run on steel rollers when they are moved in and out of the plane. There are more vibrations on the runway, during the flight, another airport, other transport equipment... When shipping porcelain internationally, the parcel containing it has already been exposed to much, much more vibrations than any domestic parcel would suffer during the entire journey from seller to a domestic buyer. And it has not arrived in the buyer's hands yet.
To be sure, the volume to weight ratio of a piece of porcelain (specific weight) is quite high. If it is packed with ever more loosening newspaper the danger that the paper is compressed and is becoming completely ineffective increases with the length of the journey. With time the item moves dangerously near to the bottom. Or, it shifts sideways until it touches the outer wall of the corrugated cardboard box. That is what we find when opening parcels received from the other side of the world.
Unfortunately, a number of "home" businesses still insist in using this method for packing highly sensible ceramic items.
Suitable materials:
Extra strength corrugated cardboard boxes
bubble wrap
nuggets
polystyrol
air bags (but are they safe from puncturing?)
Suitable filler material:
Proper item wrapping:
The item should be wrapped so thick that it is impossible to feel the edge of the porcelain item with the finger. Only that is sufficient.
Proper packing example 1: (suitable for small items)
Sideview - A central cardboard or polystyrol board is used for suspending small porcelain items horizontally. Larger items should be wrapped in bubble wrap before attaching them to the central board.
The example on the left shows extra strong (3-layer) corrugated cardboard as suspension board (enlarged image, left bottom). Polystyrol boards are also used for this.
Proper packing example 2: (Sideview) This method is suitable for small items only. We observed that the tape fixing heavier items like plates does deterioriate (gets torn slowly, bit by bit) during transit, probably because of lateral shaking.
