Fastener Packaging

Designed for your convenience, modular packaging that fits your storage facilities
by Mike McGuire

Since domestic fastener manufacturers offering the standard commodity fasteners such as hex head cap screws, carriage bolts, and the like along with various small screw manufacturers making such items as machine, tapping and wood screws have gone to bulk sales ONLY! A common question one hears today is there a fastener packaging standard. Although the answer is greatly argued because you see such a wide variety of fastener packages the answer is YES!

I am not sure who wrote the packaging standard back in the 1960's; maybe it was the Industrial Fastener Institute (IFI) or one of the members of the Cap Screw Bureau such as Lamson & Sessions or Cleveland Cap Screw, but the standard had only two main components, The 1/4 Keg and The #10 Case. These two containers made solely for fasteners and no other products. That is why they fit almost any shelf area or storage facility. Whether you use the 1/4 keg or the number 10 case you get the following four benefits:

• Ease of Handling - Average weight is 50 pounds.*
• Easier Stocking.
• Inventory Control is simpler. Just count the cases.
• High visibility labels.

The 1/4 Keg measured 9" x 9" x 6 5/8" made in corrugated cardboard. The #10 case measures 13 7/8" (L) x 10 3/4" (W) and 4 1/8" (D) and again made from corrugated cardboard.

The following list of dimensions are the sizes of chipboard packages which fit inside the #10 case. The carton number represents the number of packages which will fit with the #10 case.

Standard packaging was for 100, 50, 25, 10 and 5 pieces per package depending on size and type of the fasteners. The standard count for a gross package of 144 pieces mostly for small screws was discontinued before this standard was established. (*) The 1/4 Keg in this standard was established at 50 pounds, however that weight requirement has been changed since by the United Auto Workers (UAW) and I understand ranges from 35 to 40 pounds today. The other standard package at this time and up until they were sold in the 1980's, Southern Screw, the largest small screw manufacturer in the world at the time would sell 5 boxes in what they called a "sleeve".

This article was written for the benefit of fastener distributors to develop a modular packaging program. Fastener labels and the design of the package to show your logo and/or company name is another article for another time.